Back and Next - Back and NextDoSTIE, others hold trade facilitation forum
Friday, March 28, 2008
The Department of State for Trade, Industry and Employment in collaboration with the EC National Authorizing Officer, Support Unit of the Department of State for Finance and Economic Affairs organized, on Tuesday, a one-day workshop centred on the theme "Dialogue on trade facilitation in The Gambia: Challenges and Opportunities".
Held at Corinthia Hotel, the forum aims to look at how procedures and controls governing the movement of goods across national borders can be improved in order to reduce associated cost and maximized efficiency. The forum, which brought together participants from different sectors (importers, traders, cleaning agents, shipping companies, transport union and air lines companies), addressed the issue of challenges and constraints in the movement of goods across national borders.
In his opening address, Abdou Colley SoS for Trade, Industry and Employment, noted that the workshop is part of the programs that his department, in collaboration with the Inter-agency Committee on Mainstreaming Trade and Trade related issues (MATTRICOM), and is designed to encourage dialogue among the stakeholders in order to improve the trading environment and enhance The Gambia’s competitiveness in the sub-region.
According to him, some of these programs required long-term efforts to build the national capacity to develop and implement policies and strategies, and integrate international standards and norms measures and other trade - specific tools into our national system. He then added that The Gambia has made significant progress in simplifying procedural requirements for the import and export of goods.
He further stated that the government of The Gambia therefore recognizes the vital importance of trade facilitation, noting that in order to improve on national competitiveness as one of government’s key priorities in our attempts to capitalize on trade growth opportunities. Consequently, he said, arrangements are far advance within the ECOWAS Interstate Road Transit of Goods Protocol, as the government has appointed The Gambia Chamber’s of Commerce and Industry as the national surety for the coordination and implementation of this scheme.
He said that a guaranteed fund has been established at the Central Bank of The Gambia and government has provided some seed funds to kick-start the program adding that stakeholders who meet the requirements can now take advantage of this window of opportunity.
SoS Colley finally urged the participants to take the deliberations of the workshop in the spirit of national interest, adding that it will be a significant milestone with a view to come up with concrete recommendations and proposals, aimed at creating a better trading environment that will improve The Gambia’s competitiveness in the sub-region, while looking forward to receiving the conclusion of the gathering.
Speaking earlier, Malamin Sanyang, director of technical services at The Gambia Revenue Authority (GRA) in his welcoming remarks on behalf of his commissioner general said the co-operation between (customs - government) and (customs - business) promotes harmonized rules and procedures and creates "peer pressure."
He further pointed out that the country is getting more and more integrated into the global economy, the development of the port and other infrastructure and human capacity has become important indicators of the preparedness of the country to meet the challenges to the 48 hours clearance time of goods which includes.
He finally called on participants to come up with strategies that will not only achieve this target but will also ensure the improvement of the over all performance of the customs and GRA.
For his part, Momodou Njie of the national authorizing support unit office express happiness of his office to support efforts gear toward The Gambia competitiveness in general and the process of dialogue on trade and trade related matters.He assured his office continue support to the country in facilitating technical cooperation as EU remain the main trading partner to help The Gambia.
Held at Corinthia Hotel, the forum aims to look at how procedures and controls governing the movement of goods across national borders can be improved in order to reduce associated cost and maximized efficiency. The forum, which brought together participants from different sectors (importers, traders, cleaning agents, shipping companies, transport union and air lines companies), addressed the issue of challenges and constraints in the movement of goods across national borders.
In his opening address, Abdou Colley SoS for Trade, Industry and Employment, noted that the workshop is part of the programs that his department, in collaboration with the Inter-agency Committee on Mainstreaming Trade and Trade related issues (MATTRICOM), and is designed to encourage dialogue among the stakeholders in order to improve the trading environment and enhance The Gambia’s competitiveness in the sub-region.
According to him, some of these programs required long-term efforts to build the national capacity to develop and implement policies and strategies, and integrate international standards and norms measures and other trade - specific tools into our national system. He then added that The Gambia has made significant progress in simplifying procedural requirements for the import and export of goods.
He further stated that the government of The Gambia therefore recognizes the vital importance of trade facilitation, noting that in order to improve on national competitiveness as one of government’s key priorities in our attempts to capitalize on trade growth opportunities. Consequently, he said, arrangements are far advance within the ECOWAS Interstate Road Transit of Goods Protocol, as the government has appointed The Gambia Chamber’s of Commerce and Industry as the national surety for the coordination and implementation of this scheme.
He said that a guaranteed fund has been established at the Central Bank of The Gambia and government has provided some seed funds to kick-start the program adding that stakeholders who meet the requirements can now take advantage of this window of opportunity.
SoS Colley finally urged the participants to take the deliberations of the workshop in the spirit of national interest, adding that it will be a significant milestone with a view to come up with concrete recommendations and proposals, aimed at creating a better trading environment that will improve The Gambia’s competitiveness in the sub-region, while looking forward to receiving the conclusion of the gathering.
Speaking earlier, Malamin Sanyang, director of technical services at The Gambia Revenue Authority (GRA) in his welcoming remarks on behalf of his commissioner general said the co-operation between (customs - government) and (customs - business) promotes harmonized rules and procedures and creates "peer pressure."
He further pointed out that the country is getting more and more integrated into the global economy, the development of the port and other infrastructure and human capacity has become important indicators of the preparedness of the country to meet the challenges to the 48 hours clearance time of goods which includes.
He finally called on participants to come up with strategies that will not only achieve this target but will also ensure the improvement of the over all performance of the customs and GRA.
For his part, Momodou Njie of the national authorizing support unit office express happiness of his office to support efforts gear toward The Gambia competitiveness in general and the process of dialogue on trade and trade related matters.He assured his office continue support to the country in facilitating technical cooperation as EU remain the main trading partner to help The Gambia.
Author: by Salifu M Touray
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