A sweeping, look at the objectives of Vision 2020 may incite some brow raising. The objectives were formulated in the strategic sense: they were measured against the background of the present situation, and strategies were designed to attain the national goals. Despite its constraints, The Gambia has a lot more opportunities than we usually bother to decipher and indeed, rapid economic growth can only be achieved if our aspiration gap incites a proper management of our technical, financial and human resources. True, these resources alone would not suffice: as a result the NATT has been very vigilant on those necessary institutional reforms without which the transformation of these resources into socio-economic development achievements will not be attained.

Development is all about people, how they live their daily lives, how they attain self-realisation and how they improve on their living standards. The preliminary work from which this document emanates, was compiled through discussions at all levels of society, the document can therefore validly be said to represent the aspirations of the Gambian people. The role of the National Think Tank was mainly to help articulate those aspirations into realisable objectives.

The Vision Document covers those critical sectors capable of showing the most leverage on our endeavour to improve our position on the World income ladder. Parts 1 and 11 of this document have solicited a lot of the NATT’s efforts, since without clear objectives and an acceptable situational analysis, drawing up strategies makes little sense. Part III of the document, dealing with strategic issues. Serves as a blueprint for the various policy issues to be considered for each sector in our search for improved productivity and international competitiveness.

It is diagnosed that Agriculture, which is presently the dominant activity in the Gambian economy, will need continuos appraisal of the existing farming systems and technologies. Effective research and development within the framework of a National Agricultural Policy will enhance productivity and improve on the quality of farm output. As a corollary to improvements in farming, ancillaries to a proper marketing of farm output into income. In view of the subsumed financial resources for this strategy, it is prescribed that new institutional arrangements be forged to improve on financing agri-business activity through the establishment of specialised financial institutions.

Although industrial activity is, as yet, at an early stage of development in our economy, it is common knowledge that this type of activity has a great leverage on income and social status in the development process. Rapid industrialisation is perceived to signify an increase in the population of industrial units, a quality improvement in output as well as a geographical expansion of the market for industrial output.

Looking at the constraints to these objectives, NATT recommends the adoption of improved monetary and fiscal policies that will enhance the mobilisation of savings and facilitate their transfer to this sector, the targeting of industries whose technologies are easily assimilated by the present workforce, the designing of policies and building of institutions that will reduce the mortality rate of the start-ups and spin-offs for all direct investments and a spatial distribution of industry in order to curb the rural-urban drift.

Strategies for the main productive sectors, namely agriculture and Industry, have been well articulated with strategies for the service industries. The financial sector , the tourism industry the trade and transport sectors as well as the energy and telecommunications sectors, has been examined in light of the ultimate objective of Vision 202, namely the transformation of the Gambia into a middle-income country by the end of the first quarter of the next century,.

The social sectors have been given the prominence they deserve Health, Education and other Social services form essential pillars of Human Capital development under Vision 2020 . Without a coherent and consistent Human Resource Development strategy, " a decent standard of living for one and all" as embodied in the Mission Statement, would not be attained.

Finally, perhaps a word of caution will help dissipate some concerns that people here and there, may evoke on important matters not featuring in the document. The Gambia Inc…Vision 2020 is comprehensive endeavour. For instance, constitutional and other legal matters are in the view of the NATT best dealt with outside a document that proposes to be blue print for guiding economic and social policy formulation, implementation and monitoring. Implementation strategies do not also feature in this document but are already under discussion as to the optimal strategies and monitoring arrangements.