State
House, Banjul, January 10, 2020 – In bilateral talks held with His Excellency,
President Adama Barrow at the State House on Friday, January 10, 2020, the
German Ambassador to The Gambia, Stephen Roken revealed that the Federal Republic
of Germany will increase its diplomatic presence in the country beginning this
year.
The ambassador said consensus has been reached
between Banjul and Berlin that Germany’s diplomatic presence will be elevated
higher than just a Liaison Officer in The Gambia.
“We want to increase our diplomatic presence.
For the first time, we will send a diplomat from Germany, in a few weeks, to
intensify political, economic and cultural relations,” the diplomat said,
noting that this is a big step forward considering all the countries that want
German diplomatic presence.
President Barrow welcomes this development and
said a lot of agreements signed during the visit of the Federal President of
Germany can be effectively facilitated with such a presence.
When the German Federal President visited
Banjul in 2017, the two leaders discussed intensification of bilateral
relations.
Today, there are a number of progresses
registered in the cooperation, such as the construction of a GTTI annex in
Mansa Konko in a bid to decentralise vocational education and training for the
youths; as well as strengthening capacities in areas of energy supply.
“The
next steps of economic cooperation will start to improve this year, with the
stabilisation fund that will support value addition in the production chains to
provide jobs in horticulture, fish processing and smoking, and vocational
training,” he added.
The diplomat is of the view that young people
in The Gambia need to explore the possibility to be successful here, to earn
decent living and create families: “What they need is job opportunities and
that is what our cooperation is about. That is where we have a common interest
to fight illegal migration.”
The Ambassador expressed condolence to the
President for the boat tragedy that claimed 60 lives of Gambian youths off the
coast of Mauritania. He described it as “a tragedy that should not be
repeated.”
