After three years of construction work, The Gambia is poised for a huge infrastructure facelift with Saturday’s official launching of its first International Conference Centre by President Adama Barrow.
The 50 million dollar state-of-the-earth complex was bankrolled by the government of the People’s Republic of China in form of a grant to help The Gambia prepare for hosting the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) in 2022.
The conference centre located in the new coastal suburb of Bijilo, outside the capital Banjul will be named after Gambia’s first post independence leader Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara, who died last August.
The edifice is equipped with four thematic meeting rooms (180 seats each), 11 bilateral meeting rooms (32 seats each), 10 office spaces, 4 press rooms (53 seats each), 32 translation rooms, 5 Lounges and a banquet facility.
The Gambia was initially scheduled to host the Muslim world’s biggest convergence in 2019, but the event was moved to Saudi Arabia because Banjul lacked the required infrastructure.
Now that the project has been completed, the government under President Barrow will turn their attention to the construction of a major highway linking the Banjul International Airport to the conference centre and a VIP hotel to accommodate the guests.
The highway and hotel projects are expected to kick-start later this year, two years before the OIC Banjul Summit.
The funding of the OIC conference was part of a multi-million dollar grant The Gambia benefited from Beijing since the change of government in 2016.
Banjul and Beijing restored diplomatic relations in 2016 and during a visit to China President Barrow had told his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, that the decision by his predecessor Yahya Jammeh to sever ties with the world’s second economic power was a mistake.
EJ/as/APA