The partnership negotiated by the Secretary of State for Communication and Information Technology is a win-win situation. Both Gamtel and Gamcel needed new partners so that our national telecommunication companies could be rejuvenated through the injection of capital technology and man-power.

This new arrangement is no doubt in the interest of the national companies and its new partners, Spectrum. The government is committed to a privatisation programme and this partnership is in line with its commitment to encourage private sector participation in all spheres of our economy.

Indeed, the national telecommunication companies have had their share of problems, including maladministration, poor equipment and limited expertise. The invitation of Spectrum as a partner will definitely help to address these shortcomings.

In any partnership arrangement, the company's management would have to be revisited, including staff structure and other strategic areas. It should therefore be expected that Spectrum will be interested to know the optimum number of staff the company should carry.

This would require a staff auditing exercise. In this type of exercise, the relevant staff will no doubt be maintained. And where overstaffing is noticed, a redundancy exercise becomes inevitable.

This partnership will be expected to look at areas that are wasteful and to eliminate such waste.

The telecommunication sector is a high-tech, extremely advanced industry. In order to maintain its strategic advantage in this area, government has done the right thing.

Spectrum, with its financial and technical know-how, will no doubt contribute immensely towards ensuring a better financial and technical performance of Gamtel-Spectrum.

This paper takes this opportunity to congratulate the government and in particular, DoSCIT, for successfully concluding the partnership, which will bring great benefits to the country.

Empirically, the country's telecommunication has lost the reputation and commanding role it once enjoyed as one of the few leading companies in telecommunications in Africa. The eroding innovation in technology, service provision and expansion has sadly plunged the institution into stagnation in the face of global competitiveness, characterised by new technologies and effective management and service delivery. Such deterioration should not go unchecked.

This march towards revivification asserts the government's determination to raise the profile of our telecommunication sector to avail the Gambian population the opportunity to enjoy the beauty telecommunication has to offer. It is imperative to restore the lost glory and usher in emerging technologies that the institution failed to maintain its grip on for the past years.

Puerility and blanket argument must not breeze into serious public debate, especially on the rationality of government's decision to encourage private sector participation. Our reflections and thinking should be geared the citizens of other nations are enjoying. National interest should always trigger our sentiments in dealing with situations that directly affect the lives of the people.

The Gamtel-Spectrum partnership is a reflection of the government's commitment towards privatisation and encouragement of the private sector participation in economic development.