Folks,

The past week saw the ratification of over 1.2 billion Dalasis in loans
secured by the government of The Gambia. Of this amount, D200 million is
for the construction of the Fara Feni to Laminkoto road, D500 million for
the improvement of urban water supply and D540 million for the construction
of a first class, five star hotel complex complete with an international
convention centre. According to SOS Famara Jatta, since 1997 government has
encouraged the private sector to venture into such a project but financing
has always been a major constraint. He further told the National Assembly
that "the lack of a convention centre has made it impossible to accept the
hosting of several meetings. The Gambia is however a candidate to host the
2006 African Union meeting and having such a facility will favour our
candidature when inspection of conference facilities is carried out".
According to him, "international conferences do generate a lot of earnings
for the host country".

In another development, The Gambia government, with assistance from the
UNDP, has held a sensitisation meeting with development partners accredited
to The Gambia, but based in Dakar. The Gambia's Poverty Reduction Strategy
Paper (PRSP), that it presented, was generally well-received by our
development partners who extolled the participatory and consultative
process which characterised its preparation. They however felt there was a
need to address the subregional programmes which have relevance on The
Gambia. They also expressed concern over the country's high population
growth rate of 4.2 %, which is one of the highest in the world.

Have a good day, Gassa.

Apologisies for typos and other possible errors.

--
There is a time in the life of every problem when it is big enough to see,
yet small enough to solve (Mike Leavitt)

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