Govt urged to reallocate funds

Bai Matarr Drammeh, President of the Gambia Chamber of Commmerce and Industry (GCCI), has revealed that since The Gambia has met all the conditions for the HPIC initiative completion point, a decision would be taken quickly to allow government to reallocate funds to the social sector.

Mr. Drammeh, said the Gambia Chamber of Commerce and Industry congratulates the government for the good comments and rating it has received from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), after the completion of the latter’s two-week monitoring mission in The Gambia.
“We have noted with satisfaction that the policies implemented by the government have been hailed as good satisfaction by the IMF, whose opinion in the countries’ macro-economic management serves as a benchmark for bilateral and multilateral donors, as well as investors.

“The private sector had the opportunity to meet the mission and exchange ideas with them on how to further improve on areas, such as investment climate, re-export trade, tourism, access to finance, especially for small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs), foreign exchange management, all of these with the objective of making the best investment destination in West Africa,” he said.
He said: “We now hope that the country having met all the conditions for the HIPC initiatives, means that a decision would be taken quickly to allow government to reallocate funds to the social sectors because the development of the social sector is of paramount importance for sustainable development”.

Mr. Drammeh urged all private operators to translate favourable economic conditions into price reduction for the benefit of the poor, and also to help increase the purchasing power of Gambian consumers.

The Gambia Chamber of Commerce and Industry boss then reassured government’s commitment to the public-private sector partnership. “We know that we are all in the same boat and that we have to pull in the same direction. So far, we can say that we have been sailing smoothly together and we shall continue to win the battle for economic development and people’s empowerment,” he concluded.