Urges Private Sector to Reduce Prices

The Gambia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) has congratulated the Gambia government for what it called the good comments and rating the government had received from the International Monetary Fund following the completion of the latter’s two-week monitoring mission in The Gambia. The statement was contained in a press release from GCCI.

“We have noted with satisfaction that the policies implemented by the government have been hailed as good and satisfactory by the IMF, whose opinion in the country’s macroeconomic management serves as a benchmark for bilateral and multilateral donors as well as investors.

“The private sector had the opportunity of meeting the mission and exchanging ideas with them on how to further improve on areas such as the investment climate, the re-export trade, tourism, access to finance especially for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs), foreign exchange management, all these with the objective of making The Gambia the best investment destination in West Africa,” the release emphasised.
The Chamber further expressed the hope that as the country has met all the conditions for the HIPC initiative completion point, a decision would be taken quickly to allow the government to reallocate funds to the social sectors because the development of the social sectors is of paramount importance for sustainable development.
The release went on to convey GCCI’s desire to urge all private sector operators to translate the prevailing favourable economic conditions into price reduction for the benefit of the poor and also to help increase the purchasing power of Gambian consumers in general.

“The Gambia Chamber of Commerce and Industry would like to reassure government of its commitment to the public-private sector partnership. We know that we are all in the same boat and that we have to pull together in the same direction and so far, we can say that we have been sailing smoothly together and we shall continue to win the battle for economic development and people’s empowerment,” the release concluded.