We missed the golden opportunity to gain the much needed development aid from the EU roundtable conference on Gambia’s transition program. We missed the opportunity to gain big development intervention from the visit of the President of Turkey to The Gambia. We missed the opportunity to gain big time from the OIC Summit held in The Gambia. We missed the opportunity to access real economic assistance from the Saudi- Africa Summit, South Korea - Africa Summit and other similar Summits. As long as the Nation remains uninformed about what the country received from these international events, it could be concluded that the country still thrives in traditional diplomacy and not seriously engaged in productive diplomacy.
In traditional diplomatic space, the government continues to spend on its Missions with little or no significant dividends for the country. In productive diplomatic space, the government sees development interventions, project interventions, employment creation ventures, infrastructure development, education, health, Technology, agriculture and manufacturing, fisheries, social housing, etc sector developments are achieved from the country’s representations abroad through bilateral cooperation and multilateral funding and development cooperation. Let us look at the benefits of productive and economic diplomacy gains for Senegal where Turkey built an 80,000 capacity stadium as one example.
The Qatar government approved 500,000 housing units for Nigeria. China Company Huawei is setting up a plant that will employ 5,000 jobs to Burkinabe citizens. In July, the US government approved an $81 million hospitality project to boost tourism infrastructure in Senegal.
How can we as a country watch these development opportunities around us in the ECOWAS region, without attracting our attention to the need for economic diplomacy and the need to build capacity for the pursuit of productive engagement with the world. Let us look at the messy situation with the country’s petroleum explorations spreading all over the social media. We must be engaged in economic diplomacy to get what belongs to the country.
This was the case in oil resources sharing between Senegal and Mauritania and between Senegal and Guinea Bissau. It must be stated that Economic Diplomacy in this competitive global environment, requires tact and intelligence. We must exercise caution in policy pronouncements at the executive level before the attainment of projects. We must equally watch our backs before talking about our goals in our external engagements for various development needs of the country.
The State must decide on what it wants to achieve by way of socioeconomic development and to pursue such from wherever sources through tactful and skillful means of economic diplomacy. Let us remember that when the government became loud-mouthed about the Banjul Ports Expansion Project, some countries in the subregion rushed to attract transfer of their Ports to bigger players in the maritime industry.
It is prudent to pursue and achieve results for development before public announcements on them. There are economic intelligence operators in every country whose roles are to transmit information on the economic pursuits and outlook of such countries to their home countries. On some strategic development aspirations, tight lips diplomacy is the best way forward.
The need to revamp our diplomatic service cannot be overemphasized. As part of economic diplomacy initiatives, the government should consider attracting Project Partnership Projects and BOT projects in as many sectors of the economy as possible. For example, proposals to put up a bridge from Aljamdu area in Niumi across to Bonto will ease congestion on the Banjul Barra ferry crossing. The distance is not more than 2 kilometers.
Heavy vehicles from Northern and Southern Senegal can be diverted to such a bridge through Essau to Aljamdu to Bonto to the main highway on the southern road link of the country going to Basse, Banjul and Casamance. We can have Stadium projects in all regions to enhance sporting development.
The Denton Bridge can have a new and bigger passage to cope with the increased traffic and for security reasons. There could be a bridge connecting Bond Road to Lamin Village across the river which is a short distance. A Cultural Amphitheatre like Soranu in Dakar can be constructed. The road link from Brushibi Turntable to Tanje to Gunjur/ Katong can be constructed into a bigger highway.
A major referral hospital can be built in Gunjur to serve the whole of Kombo South, Fisheries Processing Centres in all regions, etc. All these projects can be achieved under PPA and BOT arrangement between the government and international companies and investors. Projects can also be undertaken through bilateral assistance, development cooperation and multilateral efforts. The country’s loan portfolio is overstretched and it is prudent for the government to focus on getting the needs of the country through economic diplomacy backed by proactive foreign policy. It takes skills, foresight, diplomatic and technocratic competences to move these projects and the country is endowed with such.
The political will must be sanctioned by the executive to make things happen in these ventures. With national determination backed by resolute commitment and full employment of our limitless capacity and competences, we can achieve our development aspirations from the international environment. The right people will just have to be in the right place to achieve our goals and objectives as a country.
Diplomacy is not just a mere relationship between countries. Diplomacy means an act of intelligence and foresight to win dividends in relationships and in cooperation in international engagements. A neighboring country will not accept any representation that for two years, did not bring results for its development needs. That is an accountable foreign policy drive. Foreign Policy must be based on the national interest and not on personal interest. Its pursuit is expensive and therefore, its outcome must be productive and visibly of benefit to the country. Economic Diplomacy for advancing the Nation is the way forward.
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