The Gambia government has developed a medium
term national development strategy by which it hopes to transform the country
into a middle income level by 2015, if the strategy is fully implemented and
all objectives met.
With the four-year development strategy dubbed
Programme for Accelerate Growth and Employment (PAGE), which runs from 2012 to 2015,
the government intends to register equitable growth in the national economy as well
as create decent employment for Gambians.
According to President Yahya Jammeh, through the
PAGE, the government hopes to significantly improve the rate of investment in the
productive sectors, modernize the infrastructural base, and create a vast pool
of skilled and healthy populace to manage available resources more effectively
and efficiently.
The page project is estimated to cost US$651.52
million 35% of which will be provided by the Gambia government, according to a
statement by the Gambia government, who is bent on ensuring that the four-year
programme is implemented as planned.
Apart from the government’s 35% funding
commitment, there is no funding as of now for the PAGE.
In this vein, the government through the
Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, with the support of the United
Nations Development Programme, and the United Nations Economic Commission for
Africa, organised a two-day conference on resource mobilization and investment
for the PAGE at the Kairaba Beach Hotel in Kololi on 12 and13 July
this year.
The conference brought together major
development partners to discuss the strategic priorities of the PAGE to enable
them to pledge resources, financial and technical, for the effective
implementation of the Programme.
