The Gambian community has welcomed the announcement of reopening of the embassy of Gambia in Qatar, which was closed by former President Yahya Jammeh.
"This will make relationship between Qatar and Gambia more strong especially that Qatar has an embassy in Gambia. We appreciate this step from our president when he sent the foreign minister of Gambia to discuss this issue,” Musa Bah, Public Relations Officer of Gambian Association in Qatar, told The Peninsula.
Ousainou Darboe, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Republic of the Gambia last month, in an interview with The Peninsula, had said that his country was all set to reopen its closed embassy in Qatar within next five months. “The embassy will become operational within next five months,” Darboe added. “On social media, people are discussing this development and have welcomed this step from Gambia's President Adama Barrow,” Musa Bah (pictured) said.
“Qatar is the only country in the GCC which has its embassy in Gambia and Qatar is running many charity projects in Gambia and some development projects are going to start soon. The reopening of embassy will facilitate bilateral relations and will ease communications between them,” he added.
The community of Gambia in Qatar is about 300 people who work in various sectors mostly in private sector in addition to a number of students either in Qatar university or in religious institutes.
Among important services any embassy provides to its community is that attestation of certificates especially the documents coming from Gamabia, sometimes also companies ask letter from the embassy.
“I thank Gambia's President Adama Barrow and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ousainou Darboe for their keenness to make relations between Qatar and Gambia stronger. I hope the reopening of the embassy will be as soon as possible”, he concluded.
Another community member Abu Baker said that he was happy of the announcement of the reopening of the embassy "about which I came to know in the interview with this newspaper and I hope all process will complete easily”.
Replying to a question about what kind of services the embassy will provide, Baker said that it would provide many services to community. "Usually we need to get some documents attested as well as the renewal of national identification cards and passports."
Darboe had also said during the interview with The Peninsula that Gambia was encouraging investments in Gambia from Qatari businessmen.
"Both countries have already a treaty to avoid double taxation which is operational therefore Qataris should invest in Gambia,” he had said, adding that there was a lot of potential for investors in agriculture in Gambia.
