Bambalaye, thanks for your observations and I concur with you.  That is why
I said "what Gambians need" and not the Government, because it is the small
scale farmers that form the majority of our producers.  If Jawara could sell
his produce in England every Gambian farmer should be able to do the same.
We cannot just depend on selling to ourselves and the only way we can sell
to the outside is for our government to negotiate with those it calls its
partners.  It would be interesting to know where Yaya is selling his
produce.  Selling to the outside is a must if we are to expect any
meaningful progress.  Thanks for adding value to the discourse.

Chi Jaama

Joe Sambou


>From: BambaLaye <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Another Milestone reached - Trade Versus Assistance.
>Date: Tue, 12 Mar 2002 23:45:13 -0500
>
>Joe, Yus and others:
>
>Pardon me for making this an abbreviated version of what I would've
>normally posted in addition to your interesting comments on this issue.
>From what I have read so far, it seems that there is a common notion
>that "trade" is generally understood to be the movement of containers full
>of goods across the borders. Most of us are, probably rightly so, caught up
>in the stigma of large scale trading as the only contributor to the overall
>trade balance. We must not forget that in Gambia today, more than half of
>the overall international trade is carried out by the small scale business
>owners. The individual contributions of such activities might not be
>readily visible but if one looks at the bigger pictu
>re, you will not fail
>to realize their impact on the overall trade balance. Just talk to someone
>at one one of the major banks in town.
>
>My point is, we should not get stuck with the notion that in order to gain
>from trading with more industrialized nations, we will have to figure a way
>to produce en masse thus instantly bringing oursleves down to hopeless
>level vis-a-vis competing with other more resourceful nations. We can
>surely encourage our small scale traders become fiscally strong to expand
>on what they have already built on.
>Another aspect of international trade we need to look at is the
>intangibles. We definitely do have something to sell to the outside world
>in terms culture and traditions, musical and cultural troups, expertise
>etc. The more we are able to recognize and build upon what we have and are
>able to market to the outside world the better off we shall be in the near
>future.
>Ofcourse all
>  these theories are built on the premise that there is a strong
>ambitious leadership that is able to encourage and guide all the players in
>the right direction.
>
>Got to go!
>
>Bambalaye.
>
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