Billions have been spent in preparation for the OIC summit. The Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara International Conference alone costs 50 million dollars.
The state may eventually conduct its cost and benefit analysis at the end of the summit. What is evident is that the airspace of The Gambia will witness the busiest influx of airplanes that this country has ever known that can be compared only to the AU summit of 2006.
57 heads of state and other guests will come down with airplanes to grace the occasion. It was anticipated that Gambia will have a new hotel called the Raddison Blu to hosts some of the guests, but the president did say that there was a delay in its construction.
Foroyaa will find out the projects that were planned, but could not be implemented. Apparently the key gains may be the roads that are built within the vicinity of the airport and the Bertil Harding Highway area.
Summits of this nature are designed to attract foreign exchange into the country as the heads of state and their entourage expends resources during their stay. It is also a test of the absorptive capacity of the country to host major international conference. The organisers may make new plans to promote conference tourism in the country. However, efforts must be made to see how finance flows into government coffers as a result of the summit in order to offset the interest from the loans that will be paid by the government from the tax money of the people.
