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. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~