Dr Aja Isatou Njie-Saidy, Vice President and secretary of State for women affairs yesterday received at her office Mr Gideon Behar, Israel ambassador in Dakar and Mr Adama Guindo, out-going UNDP Chargé d’affaires in The Gambia.

Speaking to journalists soon after his audience with Vice-President Njie-Saidy, Mr Gideon Behar, Israel ambassador in Dakar said his discussion with the Vice President centred on the result of his visit to the Gambia, four days of touring in the north and south banks of the country to know better about the Gambia, its people and geographical condition.

“We have also discussed the possibilities of cooperation between the two countries in the areas of agriculture, health, education and commerce. I hope that this visit will bear fruit and we will see concrete actions on the ground and cooperation between the two friendly states of The Gambia and Israel” he said.

He added that the Gambia will greatly benefit in the field of education in its cooperation with Israel noting that this year, people from the Ministry of education of The Gambia went to Israel for training and hope that in the coming years other people from the ministries of agriculture and environment will follow suit.

He noted that they have also discussed the possibility of Israel doctors coming to The Gambia for operations and expressed hope that this idea will materialise and concrete actions will be taken as soon as possible.

For his part, Mr Adama Guindo, out-going UNDP Chargé d’affaires in The Gambia said his visit to Vice President Njie-Saidy was to bid farewell and to brief her on stance of the cooperation between the UNDP and the government of The Gambia today. “We have reviewed the project we signed two months back and the implementation stages of those projects are on course. We are also in the process of finalising the recruitment of the project staff and today we will hand over equipment for the project to ease the job” he said.

He expressed delight at the project which was signed two months back noting that it is running smoothly and that they have also reviewed the state of the round table conference paper preparation.

He commended the government of the Gambia for successfully completing its poverty reduction programme (PRSP II) which will be tabled before the donor conference for policy dialogue and resource mobilisation. “I am also happy to say that the technical documentation for the PRSP in the round table is completed and is uploaded in the website to be seen my all interested partners. The quality of the documentation is highly appreciative” he noted.

The out-going UNDP Chargé d’affaires in The Gambia is heading to DR Congo, Kinshaha to pick up another appointment.