Vice-President returns from Taipei

Aja Dr Isatou Njie-Saidy, Vice- President and Secretary of State for Women's Affairs, yesterday morning returned to Banjul after attending the first-ever Taiwan-Africa Summit in the Taiwanese capital of Taipei.
The Vice-President, who represented President Yahya Jammeh was accompanied to the summit by a high-powered delegation, notably Ousman Jammeh, Secretary-General and Head of the Civil Service, and Musa Bala Gaye, Secretary of State for Finance and Economic Affairs.

James CF Huang, Taiwan's Minister of Foreign Affairs, saw off the Vice-President and her delegation at Cheong Kai Shek International Airport. Officials of the Taiwanese government and Dr Patrick Chang, Taiwan's Ambassador to The Gambia, enjoined Minister Huang in seeing- off the Gambian delegation.

During her stay in Taiwan, the Vice-President and her delegation, alongside four other African leaders and their delegations, participated in the summit that erected a platform for a renewed cooperation, as well as intensify efforts to vigorously explore other areas, such as information technology. At the close of the summit, the leaders from The Gambia, Burkina Faso, Sao Tome and Principe, Malawi and Taiwan, signed a declaration called the Taipei Declaration, which outlined specific areas of cooperation.

The Gambian delegation also participated in the opening of the Taiwan-Africa Progressive Partnership Forum at the Grand Hotel in Taipei, before the Gambian private sector group, led by Bai Matarr Drammeh, President of the Gambia Chamber of Commerce and Industry, keenly participated in the proceedings of the forum. Many African politicians, journalists, business leaders, think tanks, scholars, as well as representatives of the various sectors of the Taiwanese economy, also took part in the forum.

The Vice-President and her delegation also held meetings with Gambian students pursuing their degree programmes at the National Taipei University of Technology. The Vice -President was also taken on a tour visit to several important places, including agricultural stations, museum, and Taipei 101.