By: Nyima Sillah
The Gambia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) in conjunction with the European Union (EU) Tuesday signed a project to promote investment in culture, creative arts and sports to enhance resilience against climate change in local communities.
The signing ceremony was held at theGCCI Chamber in Bijilo.
Speaking at the ceremony, Alieu Secka, CEO of Gambia Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said they are pleased that that the project will address the issue of youths, women and the very active sport community and culture which will benefit from it.
According to him, over the last few years, the GCCI has built a lot of capacities in project implementation and they have worked with partners all over the world, setting a high Standard of transparency and accountability that allowed them to deliver projects on time.
The CEO assured the EU Ambassador that this project will be the same in term of implementation.
EU Ambassador, Attila Lajos, pointed out that, this unprecedented pandemic is causing dramatic damages on the economy worldwide and the Gambia is unfortunately not spared with its economy being highly vulnerable to external shocks.
He said the private sector in The Gambia is characterised with the majority of small and macro enterprises often active in the informal sector and the number of jobs lost to this crisis and its consequences are significant especially in the tourism sector.
However, Ambassador Attila stated that despite these uncertainties they believe in the EU that it is their responsibility to already think about the economic recovery of the country whereby the place of the private sector will be crucial.
“It is important that while The Gambia is still busy with responding to health crises, where the EU delivers assistance by budgetary support, every effort is made to gradually build resilience, enhance Investment, generate recovery as we will have to live with the virus for sometime”, he noted.
Meanwhile, he said, the signing of the project with GCCI couldn’t be more timely as it highlights the importance of the Gambia identity and its traditions.
The EU Ambassador stated that the objectives of the project which includes, to support the production of innovative handicrafts and promote fair labour conditions, promote traditional wrestling as cultural heritage with the creation of a network of wrestling training clubs and use wrestling as a tool to create solidarity amongst Communities and developing a new regulatory environment to promote arts, culture and sports.
Edrissa Mass Jobe President of GCCI said that, the Covid-19 pandemic has revealed the state of poverty in our country and it also how vulnerable our economic is not only in terms of the sizes of our GDP but our economy is not diversified.
This he said depends on two important things which are all vulnerable on Tourism and remittances and they constitute almost 50% of the country’s GDP and these are the two important areas that are most heavily impacted by Covid-19.
He added that “the project will train people, give independence, and increases people’s level of independence.”
Beneficiary Fatou Gaye of Gaye Njorro Skills Academy and Mr Faye of Wrestling Association also expressed their gratitude to the EU and GCCI for the support and the impact this project will have on their Associations.