The Gambia's Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) is currently hosting the 7th annual general meeting of the West African Telecommunications Regulators Assembly (WATRA).

The two-day event, which commenced yesterday, Tuesday, 7th June, 2009, will end today and is being held at the Kairaba Beach Hotel in the Senegambia Area. Speaking yesterday, Abdou Colley, minister for Finance and Economic Affairs, said that telecommunication, when effectively delivered, can be a key driver of any meaningful socio-economic development process, not only for any single nation, but a group of nations pursuing shared developmental goals.

Minister Colley was delivering the opening statement on behalf of His Excellency, Sheikh Professor Alhaji Dr Yahya Jammeh, who is also the minister for Communication, Information and Information Technology. "I am happy that WATRA's 15-member body has steadily emerged in positioning itself as a leading and relevant body to drive the objectives of integration of ECOWAS states, through the sharing and eventual harmonisation of telecommunication policies and practices. Allow me, therefore, to urge you all to cut through endless telecommunication bureaucracies that more often hold back the development of our sub-region, to ensure that regional integration becomes a reality," he said.  "In this day and age, the importance of telecommunications and use of ICTs as a necessary vehicle for driving development, cannot be over-emphasised," he added.

"From all aspects, including the international and organisational aspects, the need is felt for bodies such as WATRA to be effective in assuring the sustainable availability, affordability and acceptability, of telecommunication services, and ensuring that these persistently continue to underpin all their works and efforts," Minister Colley told the gathering.

Minister Colley also noted that with the creation and operations PURA, made possible through the PURA Act 2001, the government of The Gambia has clearly asserted its desire to open up the telecommunication sector to healthier competition. He said it is this desire for strong and healthy competition that led to the enactment of the Competition Act 2007.

He added that it is in light of this vision that the government recently passed the Information and Communications Act 2009. Other speakers at the event were Alagie B Gaye - PURA's director general; Aline Ndakon - current chairperson of WATRA; David Kamara - a representative from the Ecowas Commission; and the speaker from the National Assembly - Elizabeth Renner.