12th August 2005:

The President Alhajie Yahya Jammeh this morning returned from Brazil on a 4 day working visit to the South American country. Speaking to GRTS on arrival at the Banjul International Airport, head of state Jammeh said his visit centred on forging relations with Brazil on trade, agriculture and Industry.

Jammeh intimated that even though Gambia is Brazil’s 5th largest trading partner in Africa, activities by middlemen makes market price of Brazilian products expensive. He said that the visit seeks to establish direct trade links with Brazilian companies that would use warehouse facilities in the Gambia as a distribution point to the sub-region.

On oil exploration, President Jammeh said that they have been able to engage PetroBraz-a Brazilian deep-shore oil Exploration Company into possible oil exploration in the Gambia.

He however throws a note of caution that any oil exploration deal with any company would have to be within the limits of the Gambia Petroleum Policy. The guidelines stipulates amongst other things that larger share of oil exploration revenue goes to the people of the Gambia.
He revealed that government has an option of going into partnership with companies, contract it out to others or do the exploration all by itself. The specific course of action would be known before December he added.
On sports, head of state Jammeh informed reporters that a technical agreement was also entered into, where Brazilian officials would grant technical assistance in the area of sports.
He of State Jammeh’s four-day visit wrapped up on Thursday with a visit to the Brazilian Agricultural Research Institute situated at the outskirts of Brazil.

The visit has been designed to enable the Gambian leader and delegation to get first hand information on how Brazilian scientists use the centre of genetic resources and technology to improve agricultural production.