By Awa Sowe
The Vice President His Excellency Mohammed B.S Jallow during The Gambia Country Session at CII India-Africa Business Conclave, in New Delhi stated that Gambia is committed to strategic partnerships, investments and sustainable development, with a focus on energy transformation, and economic growth in sectors like tourism, and healthcare.
Mr Ousainou Senghore, Director General, Gambia Investment and Export Promotion Agency (GiEPA) gave a brief presentation on The Gambia (Country profile).
Other speakers at the session were: Hon. Nani Juwara, Minister of Petroleum and Energy;
Hon. Ebrima Sillah, Minister of Transport, Works and Infrastructure; Hon. Musa S. Drammeh, Minister of Fisheries and Water Resources; Hon. Abdou Jobe, Minister of Tourism and Culture.
All the ministers spoke about their sectors and possible areas of collaboration and investment.
The session was moderated by Bobby Salwan, Business Head for Middle East, Latin America, Caribbean, North, and West Africa.
VP Jallow’s sideline engagements
On the sidelines of the business conclave the Vice President His Excellency Mohammed B.S Jallow held back-to-back meetings and cooperation engagements.
First to meet the VP was Unitrans, a company that focuses on manufacturing of solar transformers for both distribution and sub-stations, trading in raw materials for solar equipment, vehicle parts and design and manufacture of equipment for mines and petroleum. Hon. Minister of Petroleum and Energy provided a list of areas for cooperation as per the energy roadmap.
Second, Lootah Group of Companies, focuses on housing, infrastructure, health care, defence and security. The meeting centered on affordable housing, a scheme the government through the Ministry of Lands is planning to implement.
Hari Fabtech, Interested in the processing of peanut into oil. This is in line with government’s policy of value addition to boost exports. The company has a wealth of experience in over 250 projects worldwide.
KEC: This group was led by the former Gambian Honorary Consul to India. The Company is the largest transmission and distribution company and currently implementing over 500 milion USD in Guinea. Hon. Minister of Petroleum and Energy reiterated the past engagement Gambia had with KEC through the OMVG for the transmission and distribution line from Senegal through Gambia. He said their service may be required for the upgrade of transmission and distribution lines to other parts of The Gambia to complement the 150mega watts solar project whose first phase of 50mega watts will commence soon.
In the eighteenth edition, the Conclave played a pivotal role in encouraging Indian companies to establish and grow their footprints in Africa. Since then the level of economic engagement between India and Africa has grown multi-dimensional.
The 19th edition of the Conclave aims to serve as an instrument for Africa’s growth and the role of India-Africa partnership in regional and global value chains integration. Besides bilateral, trilateral, and regional discussions, the Conclave focused on some of the key areas of partnership and emerging opportunities in agriculture food processing, defence, digital partnership, financial partnership, healthcare pharmaceuticals, infrastructure, power and energy, quality ecosystem, capacity development, amongst others.
