President Adama Barrow has said that the political situation in The Gambia remains calm.
“My Government has taken all necessary engagements to ensure that participation of all political parties and political groups within the country’s political space goes on unhindered in an environment characterized by the tenets of democracy and good governance,” he said at the opening of the second Presidential Council meeting between the Gambia and Senegal on in Dakar on Thursday.
According to him, the Security Sector Reform in The Gambia is ongoing and the process is at an advanced stage. He pointed out that the ECOMIG presence in the country is a stabilizing factor.
“The participation and support provided by Senegal both in maintaining stability and building capacity within our security services have gone a long way in assisting my Government and its partners to gradually implement the Security Sector Reform,” Barrow said
Under economic cooperation, he mentioned tourism and trade as two areas where the two countries can make significant strides.
Their tourism sectors have been collaborating with the aim of building capacity and strengthening hospitality institutions in both The Gambia and Senegal through the exchanges of good practices and students.
President Barrow added that destination sharing is also an area the two countries could venture into for mutual benefit given their geographical proximity.
“As such, experts from both countries could undertake studies and propose areas of agreement. Potentially, this could lead to establishing a single tourism destination market that is adequately competitive against other destination markets in the sub-region and beyond,” he observed.
According to the Gambian leader, in the area of trade, a key success story has been the inauguration and the opening of the SeneGambia Bridge in 2019. He said that the bridge enables free traffic flow between the northern and southern parts of both The Gambia and Senegal.
He also said it enables farmers and traders to reap the benefits accruing from the ease of movement and, to a larger extent, facilitates increased sub-regional trade in pursuance of ECOWAS integration objectives.