The Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS), a German political foundation that promotes world-wide democracy, rule of law, human rights, and the Social Market Economy in countries where they operate, has introduced a new Country Representative (CR) to Ghana.

The new CR, Dr. Gregor Ryssel, is a forty-two year old German, who has been with the organisation since 1994, and has worked in Uzbekistan, Volgograd/Soviet Union, and Moscow/Soviet Union.

Prior to his movement to Ghana, he was the CR of Uzbekistan, managing the office of KAS, creating and organising projects for the country, inviting foreign experts, contacting partners of KAS, intensifying the contact between these countries and Germany, and consulting with political decision makers of the country on issues relating to the work of the organisation.

He performed these tasks also in Sarajevo from 1996 " 2000, Belgrade 2000 " 2002, Tashkent in 2006, and would do same, here, in Ghana.

Dr. Ryssel was also the Desk Officer for Poland, Balkan and Baltic States between 1994 and 1996, and in Berlin from 2003 to 2006, with the responsibility of coordinating the project activities of KAS in these countries.

In Ghana, he hopes to continue with the work of his predecessors, in areas of supporting economic and socio-political reforms of the government, strengthen the role of the parliament, as an institution of political decision making, and promote the participation of all strata of society in the political process, particularly, through programmes for political education at the grassroots level carried out by organisations of civil society (NGOs).

According to him, he would promote their participation in local politics, particularly, in the framework of the decentralization process and integration of traditional structures into the modern state, create a legal environment where the citizens can be sure of their rights, and promote gender equality.

He said to attain these objectives KAS would continue to work with local institutions and organisations from government, legislative bodies, parastatals, as well as civil society, to grant them financial support.

KAS would further offer coaching for the execution of education programmes, conferences, seminars and workshops, and other forms of capacity building such as subsidies to personnel expenditure, further training of the personnel, and preparation and dissemination of publications among others, he noted.

Finally, he expressed the hope that the relationship, which had existed between the foundation and its many partners, would continue to grow even stronger, so that together, a strong and stable economy, bolstered by political pluralism and stability, could be achieved and maintained, to enable the realisation of the goals set at independence, in 1957.