When a group of officials from the Republic of Gambia visited Prince George’s County last week, the trip was business and not pleasure.

The meeting sought to strengthen the economic connection between the county’s Economic Development Corp. and the tiny country along Africa’s west coast.

The Prince George’s and Gambian delegations exchanged information about travel, tourism and marketing in their respective areas, and several Prince George’s businesses pitched their services to the Gambian officials.

“Prince George’s County has become a destination of delegations throughout the world,” County Executive Jack Johnson said at the meeting.

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Last week’s gathering is the latest step in Johnson’s strategy to court business opportunities in foreign countries and especially African nations. Last year, he signed a memorandum of understanding with Gambia to allow Lanham-based construction company BTI to sell prefabricated housing materials to the country.

BTI also trained Gambian workers to assemble the materials into houses. The company also ships its products to Gambia through the Port of Baltimore.

The deal could be worth about $40 million to BTI over five years under the agreement, which calls for Gambia to purchase enough material to construct 2,000 houses.

“This partnership is a direct result of a trade relationship cultivated through the county executive's outreach to the African continent,” said Kwasi Holman, head of Prince George’s economic development agency.

“This project strengthens our initiative to expand the county’s foreign trade zone, producing hundreds of jobs for Prince George’s County residents, as well as increasing tax revenue for the county.”

More recently, the county held an International Economic Summit in July to court foreign businesses and has met separately with delegations from Nigeria, India and Chinese provinces in the past year.

A memorandum of understanding Johnson and officials from Senegal signed earlier this year opens up a Senegalese port to shipments from the Port of Baltimore.

jrogalsky@dcexaminer.com