Former President of Liberia, Mrs Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, has called for strength-ened collaboration between Ghana and Liberia in the areas of trade and investment to boost economies of the two countries. She stated that these two countries have enjoyed a bilateral relationship and need to explore potential trade and investment opportunities that will benefit their citizens and yield investment returns. Mrs Sirleaf, who made these remarks at the Liberia Investment Conference held yesterday in Accra, themed "Unlocking Invest-ment Potential in Liberia for Sus-tainable Economic Growth," urged the current leaders of Ghana and Liberia to strengthen their diplo-matic ties in trade and investment. She emphasised that the African Continental Free Trade Area (Af-CFTA) should serve as the driving mechanism for achieving this goal, stressing that both countries need to elevate their bilateral relation-ship to the next level. "We need to build upon what Nkrumah did many years ago. We need the current leaders, whom we know very well and are proud of their achievements, to make this happen," she stated. Mrs Sirleaf also appealed to members of the Economic Com-munity of West African States (ECOWAS) to strengthen their borders to ensure safe trading among member countries, noting that the continent’s borders have become too weak. "No country can be left be-hind because our borders are too porous. Our interdependence in technology, finance, and other areas tells us that we must work together and invest in each other," she said. The Liberian Minister for For-eign Affairs, Mrs Sara Beysolow Nyanti, highlighted that in devel-oped countries, economic diploma-cy was about them exporting their companies, their private organisa-tions, and trying to get their goods into the global markets. She urged leaders in the con-tinent to ensure that economic diplomacy became the gateway for business, create the enabling envi-ronment, and ensure that respon-sible sectors and those responsible for trade and investment came together to do business. "The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Liberia has taken on this responsibility for economic diplomacy, and our ambassadors, our embassies, will be creating this platform for our ministries and agencies and commissions to come into countries to engage with investors. This is the second conference, as the first one was in China, some-where last year. The third will be in Belgium for all of Europe, looking at European companies, European investors coming to Belgium from across Europe, and engaging with our government officials, "Mrs Nyanti said. On her part the Liberian Am-bassador to Ghana, Mrs Musu Jatu Rhule, urged international organ-isations to invest in the Liberian economy as the country's political and economic stability is an attrac-tive factor for global investment. She said investors should take advantage of these conditions to maximise their returns as the pri-vate sector investment was a major sector which the government is open to collaborations with. She noted that Liberia is among the nations providing a favour-able economic environment for potential investors, with its natural resources, which include gold and diamonds that have investment potential. Mrs Rhule said the country had also made meaningful progress in areas such as infrastructure devel-opment, digital transformation, energy, agriculture, and value-add-ed manufacturing. BY BERNARD BENGHAN