Senior officials from Sierra Leone are in a four-day retreat in the capital Freetown, to refine a strategy to boost the country's export sector.

The retreat, which is taking place from 26 to 29 October 2009, is supported by the Commonwealth Secretariat.

"The objective is to develop a national export strategy whose implementation will help Sierra Leone improve on its export performance in goods and services," said Isaac Njoroge, a trade adviser with the Secretariat who is managing the programme.

The Sierra Leone national export strategy - launched in July 2009 - is being undertaken by a national team comprising of senior representatives from the government, the private sector and civil society.

The West African country is recovering from a painful 10-year civil war which left the economic infrastructure such as roads, health centres and education institutions in ruins.

The Commonwealth is supporting the country's political leadership to achieve its vision - tagged 'Agenda for Change' - to rebuild the economy.

This vision focuses on:

• providing reliable power supply
• promoting pro-poor growth by raising the quantity and value added productivity in agriculture and fisheries
• developing a national transportation network to enable the movement of goods and people and thereby facilitate increases in investment and economic activity
• promoting human resource development through the provision of improved social services.

Mr Njoroge said that through the national export strategy project, a national vision for exports will be formulated focusing on the agricultural sector - coffee, cocoa, oil palm, cashew, ginger, chilli, rice, and cassava - as well as tourism, fisheries and minerals sectors.