By: Momodou Justice Darboe
The President of the Gambia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI), Edrisa Mass Jobe, has clarified that the Gambia government did not commit any funds to the trip to China of prominent Gambian businessmen to attend the 4th Forum of China-Africa Cooperation(FOCAC).
He added that Beijing is a very credible teacher for Africa.
The GCCI President, the CEO of Sisokho Habat Sauda IsakaSisoho, and Muhammed Jah of Q-Group were among the business executives from Africa, who participated in the China-Africa entrepreneurial forum, as part of activities of FOCAC. Mr. Jobe, who is also the Chairman of EMJ Holdings, was also invited to attend the FOCAC political forum.
“I was grateful that the private sector was invited not only to The Gambia but the private sector of all African countries. There were two big meetings within the FOCAC. One was a bilateral meeting between heads of government. I was invited to attend the China-Africa entrepreneurial forum. I was also invited by the government to attend the political forum, which was a very big learning,” stated Chairman Jobe in an interview with this reporter.
According to him, Africa has a lot to learn from China. He added: “China is a very credible teacher for Africa because if you look back 30 years ago, China and Gambia had the same GDP per capita. In terms of purchasing power parity, they were almost the same. And 30 years later, China was able to get all their people out of poverty. China was able to increase its GDP per capita. In terms of GDP, China was able to increase that almost 20 times whilst in Africa, the overall increase in terms of GDP is almost about 6%. On the whole, we were all about $2500 per individual in terms of purchasing power parity.
Today, China is $22,000 and we are still around $2,800. For that reason, China has a proven record. A country that was similar to ours, a country with almost the same level of industrialization and they were able to move away from that type of economic structure to an emerging or developing industry structure.”
The GCCI President said: “The purpose of FOCAC, according to the Chinese Premiere, was that they want to help Africa industrialize and mechanize. It’s only through industrialization that we can develop. But they want to do it differently. They want to encourage eco-friendly mechanization and industrialization that do not destroy our environment and more importantly, people-focused industrialization that leads to the removal of the majority of the people out of poverty.”
He pointed out that Africa can create individual heroes but the biggest challenge for the continent is to get the masses out of poverty. “And that was the hand of invitation that China was extending to the African countries to say. Yes, we want to participate with you to industrialize. And we are happy that Gambia was fully recognized to play a role,” he stated.
The EMJ chair said China had been inviting “us to move away from bilateral relations and become a strategic partner”.
“But more importantly, industrialization to create innovation sectors and to create areas where our people would acquire vocational skills because you cannot industrialize if you don’t have science, technology, and engineering,” he explained.
The GCCI President dismissed as untrue social media reports that the Gambia government provided financial support for him, Muhammed Jah, Abubakary Jawara, and Isaka Sisoho to attend FOCAC.
He said some of these people have business interests in China.