By Lamin Cham
With a little over two months to go before the summit of the heads of state and rulers of members states of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, a visiting senior official from the body has said The Gambia is ready to host the summit.
Ambassador Yousef Al-Dubaie, assistant secretary general of the OIC, was speaking to the media at State House following a meeting with President Adama Barrow as part of an appraisal visit to the country ahead of the summit scheduled for early May.
According to him, his delegation has toured the infrastructure projects including roads and hotels and other facilities and has realised that huge efforts have been expended to make the country ready for the important meeting.
“Since our arrival, we had a meeting with the president and the foreign minister and in all these meetings we have similar impressions that the country is ready for the summit. Our congratulations go to the president, the CEO of OIC Gambia, the technicians on the ground and all the people working to prepare the country for the summit,” Ambassador Yousef said.
The Gambia is billed to host the flagship event of the OIC from May 4. Already, work on the reconstruction and expansion of the main Bertil Harding Highway is nearing completion while works at the airport executive lounge and the Jawara convention centre have been completed.
OIC Gambia said it is working with the Gambia Hotel Association to get the country’s top hotels spruced up to host the dignitaries expected for the summit.
