The Ambassador of the Republic of China on Taiwan, Dr. Patrick Chang, has confirmed to The Point that the heads of state of The Gambia, Burkina Faso, Sao Tome and Principe, Malawi and Swaziland would attend the forthcoming Taiwan-Africa Summit to be held in Taipei, Taiwan from the 9th to 11th September 2007.

Dr. Chang was addressing a press conference yesterday at the Taiwanese Embassy in Kanifing, ahead of the 1st edition of the Taiwan-Africa summit.
He started by expressing his government’s appreciation to the Gambian leader, government and people for their support to Taiwan in all their endeavours.

He also used the forum to outline some of the programmes his office plans to undertake in the country and some of their interventions in various sectors in The Gambia. “We have plans to renovate the Bund road, Kairaba Avenue and Banjul-Serre Kunda highway.

In the area of agriculture, he said plans are afoot to help The Gambia through the Taiwanese technical mission in the country, they a helping The Gambia to attain food self-sufficiency by 2015, thanks to President Jammeh’s exemplary leadership in going back to the land and thereby encouraging more people to emulate him.

On health, he said, “In addition to the funds we provide to employ medical doctors we are also supporting micro research and work on meningitis prevention, polio eradication and supported the Avian flu prevention campaign.