CONCLUSION

  Madam Speaker,

139. Although The Government has initiated so much reform on the governance front, it still requires deepening certain aspects of Governance. In particular, Government will devote special attention to the reforms in Decentralization in the coming years. The ultimate aim is to move towards a gradual administrative and fiscal decentralization to the Local Government Authorities. These decentralization efforts will be made in such a way that the capacity constraints in the local government authorities are given priority, and this will help the local authorities to be actively involved in the planning, design, implementation and monitoring of rural projects and programmes. The efficient and effective use of the resources collected by Municipal and Local Councils will also be an area of focus for Government. In this way, the Local Government Authorities can complement Central Government efforts in nation building.

140. The move towards fiscal prudence, fiscal transparency and fiscal consolidation will be top on Government's agenda during 2007. The IFMIS project will go-live by January 2, 2007. IFMIS will help provide timely information on central government operations as they relate to government revenues and expenditures. IFMIS will also help Government prepare its financial statements on time for submission to the National Audit Office for timely audit.

141. Presently, substantial progress has been registered in the preparation and finalization of the Government Financial Statements. The final accounts for 1991-1999 had already been audited, and the National Assembly has been considering these accounts. In addition, the Government accounts for 2000 to 2003 have been submitted for auditing. Government intends to finalize the 2004 Accounts by the end-January, 2007, and both the financial statements for 2005 and 2006 are scheduled for submission for auditing by July, 2007.

142. Government observes that in the financial sector, there is still a wide spread between the deposit, the policy and the lending rates, and, therefore, urges the commercial banks to narrow this gap as it serves as a major constraint to private sector lending for meaningful economic development. The growth of commercial banks has now engendered competition in the banking sector, and the commercial banks should extend this competition, using interest rate differentials for their cliental base. Domestic savings mobilization is a major challenge for the Gambian economy, but more challenging is the insufficient mechanism through which the little savings that are mobilized are meaningfully invested into the real sectors of the economy. You will agree that the interest rate plays a pivotal role in both domestic savings mobilization, and the utilization of these resources for investment purposes.

143. The country has achieved macroeconomic stability, but there are still challenges for the Gambian economy in the short and medium terms. These challenges include the ability of the economy to sustain the impressive economic growth rates and the macroeconomic stability achieved in the recent past, to distribute the benefits of growth for the welfare of every Gambian, the capacity gap that cuts across all the sectors, the downside risks associated with oil price hikes, our over-reliance on rain-fed agriculture and the urgent need to diversify the productive base of the economy, and finding a viable lasting solution to the marketing of groundnuts, and finally adding value to groundnuts and other domestic products by further processing them in the country.

144. Future Government policy will, therefore, be directed at addressing these challenges and to ensure that both the PRGF and the PRSP II are successfully implemented with the desired result of eventually registering significant inroads in our fight for substantially reducing poverty in The Gambia. Because of The Gambia's size, and the relatively small amounts of investments required to make great impact on poverty levels, and taking into account the positive gains registered so far in almost all fronts, The Gambia has the potential to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. It is for this reason that I once again call upon all Gambians and our Development Partners to take advantage of this golden opportunity to work collectively together to achieve by 2015 all the Millennium Development Goals for The Gambia.

Madam Speaker,

I beg to move

-end.