The outgoing British high commissioner to The Gambia, His Excellency Phil Sinkinson has lauded the development trend in the country, saying the “pace of development in The Gambia is very good and very strong”. 

High Commissioner Sinkinson was speaking to reporters in an interview Wednesday evening at State House, shortly after bidding farewell to the president of the Republic, His Excellency Sheikh Professor Alhaji Dr Yahya Jammeh. The outgoing British high commissioner, who was the United Kingdom’s chief diplomat to The Gambia for more than four-and-half years, noted that a number of factors are behind the pace of developments in the country, while specifically pointing out that the roads and water projects have been very useful and good. 

“Certainly the people that I have spoken with in the interior of the country have welcomed those particular projects,” he stated. Quizzed on whether he has succeeded in broadening the ties between the United Kingdom and The Gambia, High Commissioner Sinkinson replied that he has improved relations, but was quick to aver that this was not done single-handedly, thus acknowledging the efforts of the various ministers in President Jammeh’s government in this regard.

He said: “I think the minister of Foreign Affairs went to the UK in September last year with me. I think it’s right to say that it was the first time the minister of Foreign Affairs paid an official visit to the UK for some considerable time. That particular visit was very useful in terms of broadening the bilateral relations. The minister in the UK who met with Minister Tangara was very forthcoming in terms of our own prosperity agenda in broadening the trade and economic relations we have with The Gambia. I hope my successor will hold brief to do that when he arrives in two or three week’s time.”

Achievements
Commenting on some of the gains of his four-and-half-year stint as the UK’s envoy to The Gambia, High Commissioner Sinkinsin pointed out the continuation of their military advisory technical training team in the country through the office of the governor of Gibraltar. He said that the Royal Gibraltar Army and its police are continuing to come out here to train the [members of the] Gambia Armed Forces, as well as the country’s police personnel in their pre-deployment training before they go on peacekeeping operations in Darfur. 

He added: “The second one is the successful training of the Department For International Development (DFID) programme here – but without it actually affecting the socio-economic relationship with UK as with The Gambia. I think we successfully managed to merge the programme that was being undertaken by DFID into the European Union programme. So now for example the furtherance of the justice sector project will be undertaken under the governance programme by the European Union. So I think those two are very important of which I am proud of.”

High Commissioner Sinkinsin, who disclosed that he will depart the country this weekend, seized the opportunity to thank the president for allowing him the honour to stay in The Gambia for that length of time. “I have met lots of wonderful people here and lots of friends and I have enjoyed my time in The Gambia. I have been here more or less four-and-half years in the Smiling Coast and I had a wonderful time. Although as I said to the president we don’t always agree on every single issue; we are friends and we can discuss our problems in private. We talk to each other in private and that way we understand each other perfectly well and we remain friends,” he concluded.