By Ramatoulie Jawo
The Gambia Investment and Export Promotion Agency (GiEPA) in collaboration with the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Regional Integration and Employment has on Tuesday, December 20, 2022, launched the Gambia competitiveness Improvement Forum (GamCIF).
The GamCIF is a Public-Private platform established under the GIEPA Act 2015. The Act designates H.E the President as Chairman of the GamCIF Executive Body comprising Nine Cabinet Ministers, Five Private Sector Representatives, Ministries, Departments Agencies, and Civil Society Representatives, as well as other key stakeholder representatives.
The 2015 Act also designates GIEPA as the Secretariat of the GamCIF.
Speaking at the Launching ceremony, the Honorable Minister of Trade, Hon. Baboucarr Joof said his Ministry has been doing well on many fronts but lacked the opportunity to
coordinate the national challenges confronting the business community through platforms like GamCIF.
“When we recreated GiEPA in 2015, this was a purpose we today lived to launch to enable us now have that constant dialogue between the business community and the government.
“This will enable us as a country to gain positive improvements on how we conduct business indexes and streamline our processes among various MDAs on business registration, compliance, tax payment, Licensing and permit, and cost of doing business, among others,” he said.
He said the Government of The Gambia through his Ministry will lean forward to provide generous support to GIEPA and continue to further facilitate a globally competitive business environment by promoting the exportation of Gambian goods, developing and regulating The Gambia’s business park, formulating investment promotion, export, and enterprise development strategies, employment creation and wealth generation through private sectored growth.
“I believe we can collectively achieve this by creating an avenue for structured dialogue between public to public, public to private, private to private and civil society; all to harness a competitive friendly business environment by providing policy recommendations for economic reforms to promote sustainable growth for our economy,” he added.
The CEO of GiEPA Ousainou Senghore said it has not been a smooth task but such an initiative calls for frank engagements which he says, must be private-sector driven and public-sector response.
“This has informed our thinking to a new era of strategic direction where we will simply align our work with our mandate and existing national instruments and further remain guided by the wisdom of the executive and the Gambia government as an entity.
“…This investment was injected by thirty-nine companies in manufacturing, agriculture, tourism, and fisheries amongst other areas of productive returns to the Gambian economy. As it stands in the second quarter of this year, the Gambia’s export is about D1.5 billion whilst import continues to fluctuate at a staggering sum of D31.9 billion,” He disclosed.
The GamCIF is designed to establish an enabling business and investment environment for the economy. The forum also aims to further create an enviable environment that will boost the country’s Ease of Doing Business rankings globally, boost job creation and improve our foreign exchange earnings to improve economic growth and development.