Within
two months since he took office on 30 January, President Adama Barrow is making
a vital move to Europe.
It
is really good for him to travel to Europe to strengthen the bilateral
relations between France and The Gambia, and The Gambia and EU.
The
nations and comity of nations are our partners in development; we need their
cooperation and assistance in all areas, be it trade, tourism,
telecommunications and energy, and infrastructure.
With
lucrative cooperation, all parties can benefit even as the relations continue
to help Gambia improve some of her basic needs.
We
should open a new page with the new Gambia to explore all means to meet the
present challenges of our economy, which is rotten at the moment because of
abuse of human rights, bad governance, and financial mismanagement during
Jammeh’s regime.
Since
The Gambia is now a real democratic country, we should nurture the peace with
also the help of Europe to boost our security, and we should make known to the
European Union our urgent needs, especially in trying to solve the erratic
electricity problem of our country and improve the telecommunications services.
We
should explore the opportunity the new friendship would bring through the
European Union and other friendly European countries.
The
Gambia as a tourist country should take this opportunity to sell more of her
image, and attract more investment into the country.
With
more foreign exchange flowing into the country, it is certain that costs or
prices of commodities and other services should be managed well as much as
possible, to enjoy the climate and other facilities they can only fine in
Africa.
Tourism
is also playing a key role in our economy. We should, therefore, build more
cordial ties with our good friends.
With
strategic support and cooperation from our friends, we should try to boost our
economy to help the nation, particularly the youths, to develop and enhance
their human resource.
As
a good percentage of them work in the tourism industry, such improvement and
line of direction would help the government to achieve the goal of
all-year-round tourism.
President
Barrow should encourage and invite well-placed investors to visit The Gambia to
utilise her potentials, and to establish factories to create more employment.
All
Gambians travelling to Europe with genuine documents should be accorded a visa;
this will help reduce the back-way syndrome.
“Global
actions require local and national participation. International cooperation and
action requires community perspectives and legitimacy if it is to be
effective."
Ian
Goldin
