Honorable Ebrima Sillah, Minister of Information and Communication Infrastructure has said that Ministry of Fisheries and Water Resources in collaboration with the food and Agriculture organization (FAO) an improved method of fish smoking called FAO Thiaroy Technology (FTT) was introduced in Gunjur which is being replicated elsewhere to transform all hazardous traditional smoking method to FTT for widespread adoption.
“FTT produces high-quality smoke fish product and is considered health and environment friendly,” he said at the12th session of the weekly inter-ministerial press conference organized by the Ministry of Information on Friday
Also, he noted that inland transportation of coastal fishery products have improved remarkably. “Access to off-road communities has improved through feeder roads. An estimate of more than 500,000 metric tons of fish was transported to rural areas this year,” he disclosed.
On Ministry of Environment Climate Change and Natural Resources, Minister Sillah said the Ministry (MECCNAR) is currently validating four technical reports of the Pilot Program Climate Resilience (PPCR).
He further revealed that The Gambia is among countries advocating for global climate change and has benefitted from the World Bank climate investment fund (CIF) which enabled the government to prepare a strategic programme for resilience under the Climate Resilience project.
“This will enable the Ministry of Environment through the Government of the Gambia as a developing country to build resilience to the impacts of climate change by preparing and implementing a strong strategic investment plan of climate change intervention which is a 25-year plan.
The Ministry of Environment has also concluded a regional consultation with the Belgian Consulting firm AGRER on Climate Change which targeted administrative regions of The Gambia including a diverse range of stakeholders to determine the challenges faced in relation to climate change,” he said.
According to him, during the technical review period, the four strategic documents will be reviewed and validated which will be compiled into a national document being implemented by the Ministry of Environment.
Speaking on Ministry of Youth and Sports, Minister Sillah, disclosed that the Ministry of Youth and Sports recently trained about 80 young entrepreneurs in different parts of the country in entrepreneurship.
According to him the training was organised by the National Enterprise Development Initiative (NEDI) for mainly women and youth.
“These training are meant to strengthen capacities of women and youth to improve their business ideas as part of a memorandum of understanding signed on the Implementation of the youth revolving fund and loan scheme (YRLF) between the Ministry of Youth and Sports (MOYS) through National Enterprise Development Initiative (NEDI) and Social Development Fund (SDF).
The purpose of the MOU is to assist in the implementation of the Youth Revolving Fund component of the Youth and Sports development levy to disburse loans to eligible youths, provision of grants training and monitoring services,” he said.
Dilating on Ministry of Tourism and Culture, Honorable Sillah stated that as part of efforts to promote domestic tourism and bringing tourism to the doorsteps of Gambians especially in the rural Gambia in the form of decentralization, the Ministry of Tourism and Culture through the Gambia Tourism Board has deployed staff to all regions of the country as tourism representatives to help various Regional Governors primarily to promote and develop tourism in the regions.
“These representatives are expected to work in close collaboration with the relevant authorities and communities especially the National Center for Arts and Culture, Forestry, Parks and Wildlife and to promote community-based tourism through available cultural and historic assets as well as Forest Parks and Wildlife.
Currently, the Deputy Permanent Secretary and staff of the Ministry of Tourism and Culture, the Director-General of The Gambia Tourism Board, the Director-General of The Gambia Tourism and Hospitality Institute and other senior staff of the National Center for Arts and Culture are on a countrywide visit to meet with Regional Governors of the various regions to formally introduce and explain to them the role of the Tourism Representatives in their regions.,” he said.