News and Events

The Chinese Government donated office equipment worth D2m to the Ministry of Fisheries and Water Resources

• January 8th, 2020
• Ministry of Fisheries

The Ministry of Fisheries, Water Resources and National Assembly Matters Monday 6^th January 2020, received office equipment worth D2m from the Government of China through it Embassy in Banjul at a handing over ceremony held at the Department of Fisheries.

The items donated by the Chinese Embassy to the ministry includes 20 desktop computers, 6 TV sets, 20 sets of printers, 20 sets of filing cabinets, 6 sets of air conditioners, 80 boxes of A4 size paper, 5 sets of scanners, 40 sets of toner cartridges and 40 sets of UPS 800F.

Present at the handing over ceremony to receive the items on behave of the ministry was the Vice President of the Gambia, Dr. Isatou Touray.

Speaking at the event Dr. Touray said that the provision of the office equipment to the Fisheries Ministry was an important and timely development, following the unfortunate fire incident which destroyed the buildings of both the ministry and the Department of Water Resources on 2 December 2019.

V.P stated that the provision of the office equipment will undoubtedly go a long way in supporting the ministry and Department of Water Resources to settle down and continue their very important work towards national development

She further acknowledged the efforts by the People’s Republic of China, saying that the two countries share a long and common standing bilateral relationship based on mutual respect and recognition of the sovereignty of the two countries since the first republic.

 H.E MA Jianchun, the Chinese ambassador to the Gambia on his part, sympathised with the Gambia government on the recent fire outbreak that engulfed the Ministry of Fisheries last month.

“In order to help the Ministry of Fisheries tie over the difficulties at an early date, the Chinese Embassy has decided to donate office supplies and equipment worth 2 million dalasi to the ministry,” he said.

He also outline that the Chinese government attaches great importance to the bilateral cooperation in the field of fisheries with The Gambia.

James FP Gomez, Minister for Ministry of Fisheries, Water Resources and National Assembly Matters said the said incident happened at a time when the Ministry of Fisheries, Water Resources was busy finalising the programme of activities to be implemented under the EU/Gambia Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreement.

The minister stated that in 2020, the Ministry of Water Resources has tasked the Department of Fisheries to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing through collaboration and partnership with all relevant stakeholders amongst other tasks.

He concluded by thanking the Chinese Government for the gesture, saying the support is timely and will go a long way in helping the Ministry to settle down from the incident.