The government of Japan, within the framework of Japan’s Food Aid Programme, on Monday March 30, 2009, granted D120M to The Gambia government.

This endowment from the "Land of the Rising Sun" to The Gambia is a sign of the good bilateral relationship between the authorities of both countries. A press release issued yesterday by the Department of State for Foreign Affairs indicates that the grants aim at helping the government to purchase rice for the consumption of the Gambian people. Below, we reproduce the full text of the dispatch:

"The government of the Republic of The Gambia and the government of Japan on Monday March 30 2009, signed the exchange of notes concerning a grant aid to the Republic of The Gambia, within the framework of Japan’s Food Aid Programme. The grant aid, which amounts to four hundred and eighty million yen (¥480,000,000.00)  and is equivalent to one hundred and twenty million dalasi (D120, 000,000.00), will be used to purchase rice, for the consumption of the Gambian people.

The initiative, which has a two-pronged objective, aims at satisfying the basic and urgent food requirements of the Gambian people on the one hand, and in its monetized form, provide additional resources for the implementation of government’s socio-economic development projects especially as regards food security.

The aid is part of the 100 million US dollar emergency food package which former Prime Minister Fukuda of Japan had announced at the 4 Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD IV) in May 2008, in response to the concerns expressed by many participants in the wake of soaring food prices and their negative impact on poverty reduction in Africa.

His Excellency Mr. Takashi Saito, Ambassador of Japan to the Republic of The Gambia signed for the government of Japan, whilst His Excellency Mr. Gibril Seman Joof, High Commissioner of the Republic of The Gambia in Dakar, signed for Government."