The president, Adama Barrow, has promised effective and regular communication to the people as he presided over the second cabinet meeting in six months.
The government has recently come under huge criticism for its persistent silence on pressing matters of the country.
But writing on his official Facebook page yesterday, President Barrow said he will now face the press twice in everysix months to inform the citizens on his government’s activities.
“My cabinet agreed to put in place a communications strategy that would guide regular government communication with the public. This will include regular press briefings and I will hold bi-annual news conferences,” President Barrow wrote.
The president also spoke on various other issues like farming, Banjul port, education etc, with special emphasis on electricity, as the country continues to grapple with erratic power outages.
“The Continental Self and Maritime Zones Bill, 2015 has been approved for legislation and we have agreed to sign the International Energy Charter. We are looking at several options to address the country’s electricity problem from generation, transmission to distribution. We will repair the current generators while we work on more permanent solutions including alternative energy.
“We have been updated on the Banjul Port Expansion project, construction of roads in the Upper River Region and improvements on the ferry services.
As the rainy season fast approaches, making timely availability of fertilizer and seeds to farmers will be priority under agriculture. Also a bilateral agreement on agriculture has been signed with Turkey.
“The Basic and Secondary Education Act 2016 has been discussed. This will support strategies to improve basic and secondary education in the country.
“We also reviewed briefs on the finalization of the National Plan of Action, the revised 2017 national budget, the setting up of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, as well as the Waste Management, Forestry Bill and internal security issues,” he said.
