Taiwan’s Foreign Minister, James CF Huang, has justified the agenda of the first edition of the Taiwan-Africa Summit, saying that it was designed in the context of the framework of bilateral relations between Taiwan and its African allies in the face of globalisation.

The Taiwanese Foreign Minister made these remarks, during a press conference with journalist from Taiwan diplomatic allied countries, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Taiwan.

The summit focused on democracy, IT, environmental protection, healthcare, economic development, trade, sustainable development, and peace.
 Huang told African journalists that the he jointly paved a way for the successful running of the summit with his counterparts from African countries.

He said Taiwan ranks as the second largest producer of IT and fifth leading nation in e-government capability. He added that the Asian-Pacific island state also ranks as the 16 largest trading nation and 19 biggest economy in the world. To this effect, Mr Huang said Taiwan will be more than willing to share its experience and resources to help allied countries to cope with the trend of globalisation, especially in education the people on the use of computer and internet.

According to him, the main focus of the summit will be on IT and sustainable development, adding that in-depth discussion will be held on how to leverage the present technical capacities and educational level of available personnel.

Commenting on environmental protection, Mr Huang said Taiwan can assist in the production and promotion of organic cotton. "Organic cotton is not only environmentally friendly, but also very appealing to today’s textile industry," he said.
"The mainstream issues," he said, "challenging the world include global warming, sustainable development and energy saving".

He told the journalists that his government is concern about the maintenance of peace and security in Africa, with most countries wrecked by armed conflict and sporadic genocides. He said Taiwan has been giving humanitarian assistance through the UN and lauded the peace keeping initiatives by the African Union.
James CF Huang reiterated that the summit presented the opportunity for the heads of states and delegates to delve into the root causes of conflict in Africa and advance resolutions to deal address the problem.

Commenting on the strain relations between Taipei and Beijing, Mr Huang said China is obsessed with territorial ambition and had never ruled out the use of force against Taiwan. He said Taiwan’s legitimacy to exist as a sovereign state is "based on international justice and human rights".