Four ambassadors yesterday presented their letters of credence to President Dr Alhaji Yahya Jammeh at State House, Banjul.

The four plenipotentiaries, who were accompanied to State House by The Gambia’s Foreign Secretary of State, Crispin Grey-Johnson, were Gilles Hervio of the EU, Gerhard Doujak of Austria, Mrs Jamaiya Bte Mohammed Yusof of the Kingdom of Malaysia, and Yahya Ngam of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania.

European Union
Speaking in an interview with journalists shortly after his audience with the Gambian leader, the EU diplomat who is based in the Senegalese capital, Dakar, expressed his admiration of President Jammeh’s openness, describing the implementation of the EU cooperation with Banjul as undesirably slow due to the lack of dialogue.
“The problem we had is that we were slow in our cooperation,” he recounted. However, he told journalists that this procrastination can be ended through dialogue.
Commenting on his encounter with the Gambian leader, Mr Hervio said they discussed immigration and its sweeping effects on The Gambia, West Africa and the EU. He disclosed that they are exploring new projects on infrastructure, decentralisation, and immigration to complement the national development process.
“I was impressed when I read the last IMF (International Monetary Fund) report on the improvement of micro-economic stability, control of inflation, and other areas,” he said, noting that The Gambia could enjoy debt relief or cancellation to augment other social
sectors.

Austria
Commenting on the state of bilateral cooperation  between Banjul and Vienna, Gerhard Doujak, Austrian Ambassador to The Gambia pointed to agriculture and tourism as key areas, noting that they had discussed how to increase the “prosperity and the knowledge of the people. We can also profit a lot from The Gambia’s experience”.
“Austria is a tourism country and we can share a lot with The Gambia and adopt these experiences here. Tourism is an attractive investment,” said Ambassador Doujak.
Acknowledging that a lot of Austrian NGOs are working in The Gambia, Ambassador Doujak expressed his preparedness to cement relations between the two countries. He then expressed his delight with the President’s reception, saying, “I was touched and impressed by the warm reception”.

Malaysia
“We had a very productive meeting,” Mrs Jamaiya Bte Mohammed Yusof, Malaysian Ambassador to The Gambia, told journalists, shortly after her audience with President Jammeh.
Mrs Yusof informed journalists that her country has a good number of Gambian officials and students pursuing academic programmes in poverty reduction, IT, and diplomacy under the technical cooperation.
“The Gambia is well known in Malaysia,” she said.
She said President Jammeh has emphasised the importance of agriculture and wishes to send 25 students to the Agriculture University of Malaysia, as well as another 25 students to study programmes in science and technology. Ambassador Yusof said the President also expressed interest in cultivating oil palm in The Gambia.
“So we are thinking about growing oil palm in The Gambia,” she said.

Mauritania
For his part, Yahya Ngam, Mauritanian Ambassador to The Gambia, acknowledged the long-standing relation between Banjul and Nouakchott, saying: “We have a lot of Mauritanians living in The Gambia and there are a lot of Gambians in Mauritania”.
Ambassador Ngam said his audience gave him the opportunity to receive presidential advice on his mission and the cooperation between the two countries.
Commenting on the scope of cooperation, Ambassador Ngam, said the two countries cooperate in areas including trade, marine and transportation, education, economy, and security. He observed that he has a lot on his table and then gave assurances of his resolve to live up to expectations.