ECONOMYWATCH: More business opportunities for Gambia private sector

One of the founding principles of the Gambia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) is to promote and encourage business and entrepreneurship in The Gambia.

Promoting and encouraging Gambia entrepreneurship is also of great significance to the business community who are aware that only the creative energies of entrepreneurs will release Gambia’s true potential.

It is therefore in taking cognizance of this fact that the GCCI announced the visit of a delegation from the Turkish Investment Mission and the Business Council to The Gambia in June, to discuss business opportunities with the Gambian business community.

The GCCI, in collaboration with Gambia Investment and Export Promotion Agency (GIEPA), will be holding on June 8 a Business Opportunity Match-making session between the Turkish Investment Mission and the Gambian Business Community to discuss business opportunities in such areas as construction, fisheries, ports and shipyard projects, airport security, and general trading.

This initiative is a tremendous boost for the Gambian business community which should be taken advantage of.

The Turkish-Gambian Business Council was established by the signing of  an agreement between  GCCI and DEIK - the Foreign Economic Relations Board of Turkey -  on 11 March 2013 in Istanbul, where the two parties agreed to establish a bilateral Business Council  to help promote trade  between The Gambia and Turkey, contribute to industrial and technological collaboration between their enterprises and  economic institutions and to coordinate joint efforts to collect, combine, analyse, evaluate and diffuse information in relation to trade, industrial and technological cooperation and investments to the mutual benefit of the two nations.

The signing of the agreement between GCCI and DEIK was witnessed by Trade, Integration and Employment Minister Kebba S. Touray, The Gambia’s Ambassador to the Republic of Turkey Gibril Joof, Gambia Investment and Export Promotion Agency Chief Executive Officer Fatou Mbenga Jallow and other heads of government departments and parastatals.

The agreement also made provision for the GCCI and DEIK to set up Gambia-Turkish Business Councils which will operate in the form of two national divisions. Each division will have its own member companies and economic associations. This means that whilst the DEIK will provide the secretariat for the Turkish division, the GCCI will provide secretariat for the Gambia section.

The Business Opportunity Match-making session holds on 8 June at the GCCI complex in Bijilo, where all members of the business community are invited.

BIZFINANCE LEXICON

Early stage investments: Investment by venture capital institutions in the provision of seed capital (funds to finance research and development (R & D) before a business is operating) and start-up finance for new companies.

Discretionary account: Funds for investment placed with a stockbroker, commodity broker, commodity broker or other authorized investment manager, with either no, or only general, instructions as to how they should be invested. The broker decides upon the distribution of the investments and keeps the client informed of purchases, sales and the value of the portfolio.  An account in which a broker or manager may trade without the prior assent of the principal.

Escrow account: A document of agreement held by a third party until one or both of the other two parties have fulfilled certain conditions. Thus, funds on an escrow account will be released by a bank when agreed conditions are met.

Organic growth: Where a firm develops as a result of its internal efforts, e.g. by increasing market share.

Terms of trade: The ratio of the index of export prices to the index of import prices. An improvement in the terms of trade follows if export rise more quickly than import prices (or fall more slowly than import prices). A depreciation of a currency tends to worsen the terms of trade.

Underwrite: To guarantee to buy or find buyers for all or part of the issue of a security; to accept on behalf of an insuring firm or syndicate an insurance risk.

Voting share:  An equity share entitling the holder to vote in the election of directors of a company.

Windfall tax: A one-off or occasional tax on a company or industry, designed to recoup for the public profits that were considered excessive and underserved.

X-efficiency: The effectiveness of a firm’s management in extracting the absolute possible maximum output of the firm, given the resources available.

Zero-dividend preference share: A preference share that pays no dividend but a fixed sum at a redemption date.

Zero sum game: A game in which one player’s gain is equal to other players’, whatever strategy is chosen.

Source: The Penguin International Dictionary of Business and Finance.