Many things are happening between the two sister countries that the Secretariat should focuson. The Secretariat should work hard to get the following things done and even more. It should try to improve transit trade relations without hindrance, introduce domestic flight, maintain exchange of culture and tradition, improve sports relations, and ensure information flow between the two state media.
There should also be more public transports shuttling between both countries, regular meetings between officials of the two countries, and jointly fight of illicit trade movement such as drugs and timbers across both territories.
It should be noted that Gambians and Senegalese are bound to live together. This is because we are related in blood and religion. Thus, we should support each other and work for the development of each other.
Mr President, the secretariat should be open to the media to be able to know issues of concern of the two countries. The foreign ministers of the two countries should take the lead in fostering the good relations between both nations to ensure trade and economic development are achieved and proper security is maintained to guard against particularly the troubles in the Sahel region caused by the jihadists.
Mr President, if the Secretariat is made effective, both governments and peoples will experience a better region that will serve as a role model in not only West Africa but also the whole continent of Africa.
It is therefore recommended that the Secretariat should introduce steps for its revitalisation. Those steps include strengthening the structures of the Committees, reviewing of existing areas of competence and fields of cooperation, and introducing additional ones that would foster the bond and national development between the two nations. For this exercise, it is necessary to have a workshop/seminar that will bring together former senior officials such asthe Executive Secretary, the Deputy Executive Secretary and government officials who have participated in various activities of the Secretariat. These officials would be presenting papers of reminiscences and work they have done as well as come up with proposals for the way forward. The meeting could be held in Banjul or Dakar.
Mr President, Ramadan is fast approaching and may fall on 23rd of March 2023, according to the Calendar. It would therefore be appropriate for your government through the Ministry of Trade to reach out to the business community, especially the petty traders like shopkeepers, vendors in the markets, etc, and all those involved in wholesale of essential commodities. It has been a habit by the business people to always inflate prices of food commodities such as sugar, rice, flour, chicken, oil, vegetables and other essentials during Ramadan. This is not good for the image of your government, Islam and the Gambian people.
Mr President, it is advisable that proactive measures are taken by the Ministry of Trade to prevent the inflation of prices during the holy month of Ramadan. Since price control somehow no longer exists, business people would want to take advantage of that to inflate the prices of their commodities.
Finally, Mr President, it has been reported in this medium severally that many supermarkets in the country have poor ventilation or cooling systems, which can be detrimental to food safety hence this risk should be addressed in addition to making sure there are no expired foods in the supermarkets.Supermarket culprits of this nature should be taken to justice.
The Labour department officials should also be visiting supermarkets to investigate allegations ofmaltreatments of Gambian workers.
Good day!