Here is the second part of SOS Jatta's budget speech. The rest will follow
soon.

Have a good day, Gassa.


IV. CO-OPERATION AND INTEGRATION

i. Bilateral Relations

Mr. Speaker,


We take this opportunity to express our sincere appreciation to our
bilateral partners, specifically to the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the
Republic of China, the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Egypt, the state of Kuwait
and the European Union for their significant assistance. It must be
mentioned that Cuba has remained supportive to The Gambia, especially in the
health sector.


The cordial ties of friendship and co-operation between The Gambia and the
Republic of China-Taiwan continue to flourish with technical and financial
support provided to various sectors of our economy. However, our support for
ROC-Taiwan is not driven by considerations of financial gain but by our
belief in the principle of self-determination and the right to exist for
every nation.

ii. Sub-Regional Co-operation and Integration

Mr. Speaker,


The drive for a second West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) is in progress with
the establishment of the West African Monetary Institution (WAMI), which is
now operational and is located in Ghana.


The Gambia remains committed to sub-regional co-operation and development
and continues to be an active member in sub-regional organizations such as
ECOWAS and WAMA. We are also committed to promoting peace in the sub-region
and the world at large.


As the world in which we live today is characterised by an ever-greater urge
to globalisation, our foreign policy is geared towards the maintenance of
international peace, friendship and cooperation to achieve the goals of
higher standards of living and prosperity for all Gambians.

iii. Relations with our Development Partners

Mr. Speaker, Sir,


The Gambia continues to nurture and consolidate its ties with the
international donor community. We have received both technical and financial
support from our Development partners and assistance has been channelled
either directly to the government or through NGOs. Our relationship with the
multilateral institutions such as the IMF, the World Bank Group, the
European Union, ADB and the Islamic Development Bank remains cordial. A
worthy mention here is the U.K’s Department for International Department
(DFID) for the special assistance given to our country in various forms.


The Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) programme with the IMF is
in its final year. This three-year programme was originally supported under
the ESAF in 1998. The Gambia was commended for the encouraging economic
performance since the beginning of the programme. The IMF noted that the
progress made towards the settlement of the Alimenta dispute has improved
investor confidence. However the timely implementation of the comprehensive
governance program incorporated in the PRSP and the structural reforms aimed
at promoting private sector activities remain crucial.


The successful ending of the PRGF this year will pave the way for a new
3-year program with the Fund by early 2002. An IMF mission is expected in
Banjul immediately after the National Assembly election to discuss the next
PRGF. This august assembly is hereby reminded that the benefit of having an
IMF program is that it guarantees the intervention of other bilateral and
multilateral donors in terms of technical assistance. It will also enable us
to be abreast with macroeconomic developments.


The ADB provided vital support to The Gambia during the year with a D48
million loan agreement for the rural electrification project and a D47
million loan for the Artisanal Fisheries Development Project was signed with
ADB, from the Nigeria Trust Fund window. The ADB Group is also providing
funds for the coastal protection project along with the OPEC Fund and The
Gambia Government, and implementation is expected to start in early 2002.


The EU continues to support government’s efforts in various sectors of the
economy especially education and agriculture. The Gambia will receive
substantial assistance in the next five years under the new Cotonou
partnership agreement between the EU and ACP countries and the funds will be
disbursed through the European Development Fund.


The different agencies of the UN family also continued to provide vital
support to The Gambia. During the year, the FAO approved funding for the
establishment of a food inspection network to guarantee the quality of
locally produced and imported food items and to draft an all embracing
national food law. With plans underway for a new five-year programme of
co-operation between the Government and UNICEF as from next year, it is
envisaged that this will be a more comprehensive and integrated approach to
childcare and development.


Recently our Government and the Kuwaiti Fund signed a US $10 million loan
agreement for the construction of the Farafenni-Laminkoto Road. This project
will be co-financed by the BADEA to the tune of US $8 million. Funding for
the Irrigation Rice Development project was also finalised with the Kuwaiti
Fund. The Kuwaiti Fund has financed various projects in the country
including the Banjul International Airport and the Kombo Coastal Road
Project.


We would indeed like to thank the multilateral agencies and the wider donor
community for their significant contributions, both technical and financial,
to our socio-economic development.

V. OUTTURN OF THE 2001 BUDGET


bBBBB4

Mr Speaker,


Budgetary allocation to the sectors for several years now, has been skewed
towards the social sector and the 2001 budget is no exception. This is
because our focus remains on poverty reduction. In 2001, we committed
D173.2m to educational expansion and development, D110.4m to health and
social welfare services delivery and D6.8m to youth and sport development.
In effect the social sector is allotted 36.5% of to total government
spending excluding debt service charges, which in itself constitutes 34.4%
of total allocated expenditure for the year. In addition, we have earmarked
D68.1m of HIPC relief funds for these sectors.


With these, and the intervention of our development partners we have been
able to increase the number of Upper Basic Schools (UBS) by nineteen
representing an increment of 22% from the previous year. This has increased
the number of places in UBS thereby increasing the transition rate to 91% in
regions 1 & 2 and 100% in the other regions where basic cycles were
introduced. The Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) improved by 1.6% though it fell
short of the target by 25%. Girls’ enrolment increased by 3.8% but again
fell below the target by 3.4%. The Pupil Teacher Ratio at 36, is still
within the target of 45 implying there is still room for better cost
management, while Pupil Classroom Ratio slightly over stretch the target at
57 resulting from rising GER and the construction of new classrooms.


Access to health facilities is slowly improving with approximately 90 per
cent of the population living within 7.5 km of a health facility; success
has also been recorded with the Baby Friendly Community Initiative (BFCI) in
achieving its prime objective of increasing the numbers of mothers who
exclusively fed their babies in the targeted villages


Government has not lost sight of the fact that a prospering social sector
has to be supported by a vibrant productive sector for sustainability. To
this end we allocated 6.2% of total ‘disposable’ income to the productive
sector and as a result, the contribution of agriculture to GDP increased by
8.6%, manufacturing by 1.7% and trade by 0.5%.


In 2001, an amount of D65.7 million was allocated as HIPC funds with 65%
going to the social sector. The purpose of the HIPC allocation is to
accelerate social sector spending in our fight against poverty. This
underscores our commitment to ensure that public resources are used
effectively on poverty reducing expenditures to the benefit of the poor.
Already there is a framework in place to monitor and track these resources
as part of the agreement with the Bretton Woods Institutions in our PRGF
program.

VI. POVERTY ALLEVIATION AND THE SOCIAL SECTOR STRATEGY

Mr Speaker, sir,


The interim PRSP has already undergone a thorough review at the grassroots
and the comments from the consultations are being incorporated towards the
finalisation of the document by end January 2002, in readiness for
completion point of the HIPC initiative. The PRSP, you would recall, spells
out the poverty reduction agenda, and specifies the various programme
interventions towards achieving middle-income nation status. The
finalisation of the PRSP will culminate with a Round Table Conference slated
for mid-2002 with the cooperation of UNDP.


Our poverty reduction strategy continues to target the poor directly through
various interventions, aimed broadly at enhancing the individual’s capacity
to produce and earn an income, sufficient for his or her economic progress
and the provision of social infrastructure for the general well being of the
Gambian people.


A notable player in this arena of poverty reduction includes the Social
Development Fund (SDF). The Fund was set up to counter the menace of poverty
through a grass-root demand-driven approach with the extension of
micro-credit, provision of social service infrastructure, and the provision
of technical support towards poverty alleviation for CBOs, NGOs and CSOs.


To sustain and cement the gains made against poverty by the implementation
of SDF programmes, plans are at an advanced stage to transform it into a
Fiduciary Financial Institution (FFI). The proposed FFI will continue with
the present mandate of SDF in addition to functioning as an apex body for
the non-formal financial sector. By this function, the FFI would provide the
much needed linkage between the funding agencies, including government,
donors, NGOs, banks on the one hand and the Micro-Finance Institutions
(MFIs), social development organisations and CBOs on the other hand. The FFI
will create a permanent first stage institutional conduit, and a permanent
safety net for government and donor procured funds intended for poverty
reduction.


Other players in the micro finance sub-sector include CRS, which is
supporting GAFNA in implementing a poverty lending micro-finance project, in
order to increase access to credit for approximately 400 poor rural women.
Also active in this area are National Co-operative Credit Unions (NACCUG),
National Women Finance Association (NAWFA), to name a few.

Mr. Speaker,


The micro-finance sector has become cardinal to our poverty reduction
strategy, focusing inter alia, on credit delivery, capacity building and
retention as well as institutional support and strengthening. Government
therefore provides the appropriate and adequate regulatory and supervisory
services for the proper functioning of the micro-finance institutions as a
channel through which rural financial services reach rural households.


In this regard, the Central Bank in conjunction with Rural Finance Community
Initiative Project (RFCIP) have initiated and adopted a co-ordinating
framework for all the stakeholders in the sector to monitor the operations
of the MFIs in order to enhance efficiency and eliminate duplication of
efforts.

_________________________________________________________________
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