The seminars include Ethnic and Traditional Sports Protection and Development, Sports Integration with Culture and Tourism and Competitive Sports Training Management. The participants included government officials, youth leaders, young entrepreneurs and other instrumental youths.
Likewise, the larger chunk of the young people during the send-off and orientation ceremony in the halls of the Independence Stadium consisted of those heading for China, there was a small group heading to Dakar for an ECOWAS youth event. The entire entourage of youngsters was up to 55.
In his remarks, Minister Bakary Y. Badjie highlighted that it was the first time that such kind of send-off was held although they had carried out others for sports associations typically, such as football, basketball or volleyball.
"This is the first time that we are having such a number of young people that are leaving the country to go and participate in another activity outside the Gambia in this magnitude," he stated.
While highlighting that for those going to Dakar for the ECOWAS youth event, the cultures and systems are the same, he stressed that it would be different for those going to China.
"For the Republic of People's Republic of China, that's a completely different country, a completely different culture, and far away in Asia," he noted, urging them to be dedicated and determined.
He described the opportunity for these youths to travel and be trained in China as "a demonstration of commitment on our side as a ministry and as a government to look for opportunities for young people” of The Gambia. “And it didn't come by coincidence. It took a lot of process, a lot of meetings and a lot of lobbying to be able to expose our young people outside,” he stated.
"We are doing this because we believe that, yes, a lot of things are here where we can learn from, and some of us do have the opportunity to learn from each other. But travelling to a country that has a different culture, more advanced than we are in terms of technology, business, entrepreneurship but also sport and sports infrastructure, we believe that would help to inspire those that would have the opportunity to go, but also it will help to get us to learn something new that we can come back and implement it in our work, in our various institutions. We would also be able to implement it in the business that some of you are doing.”
He urged the participants to take the advantage strictly given based on their positions or hard work, adding there were thousands that could have been selected.
Delving into the fact that China is the second leading economy with massive development and innovation, technological advances, "China is a country that is worth for everybody to visit".
He thanked the Chinese Embassy in The Gambia, saying the opportunity given to these young people would not have been successful without it.
