By Aisha Tamba
The Ministry of Transport, Works, Infrastructure Tuesday began a workshop for preparing a road map towards the establishment of a road database management system held Senegambia.
The aim of the workshop is to carve a road map for the establishment of a road database management system in The Gambia.
Speaking at the gathering, the minister of transport Bai Lamin Jobe, said: “This initiative is in line with some of the core activities of the directorate of planning of the ministry of transport, works and infrastructure.
“The regular collection and analysis of relevant sectoral data, maintenance and update of a master data bank for the transport sector, collecting data on the performance indicators of public enterprises and using them to evaluate their activities as well as carrying out regular traffic surveys.
“This road map will eventually lead to the establishment of a road database management system in the Gambia which is one of the core intervention areas of the directorate of planning and hence the ministry.”
He furthered that, the management and the production of reliable statistics are not only important for policy makers in decision making but also serve as a guide for private investment decisions.
“Our development partners, multilateral organisations and the donor community use data and key performance indicators in making funding and foreign direct investment decisions.
“It is therefore important to assess the current situation regarding the state of our data management system in the transport sector and come up with a road map for the establishment of cutting edge data management systems to enhance effective and efficient transport sector governance.
“We believe we can do this better by engaging both local and international partners, sharing experiences and best practices with them, in the spirit of multilateral cooperation.”
The project is funded by the COMCEC under the road database management systems in selected OIC countries Senegal and Nigeria (2017 -GMBTRANS-468).
The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation founded in 1967 has 57 members, 56 of which are also member states of the United Nations; some especially in West Africa are though with large Muslim population-not necessarily Muslim majority countries.
