Editorial

The Gambian leader, His Excellency Professor Alhaji Dr Yahya Jammeh yesterday returned to Banjul after another official visit to the sister Republic of Taiwan. We need not belabor on the significance of the visit as it is clearly evident that the two countries pursue common objectives.

Taiwan has been instrumental in accomplishing the development drive of The Gambia. The Asian island nation’s immense contribution to this country in the field of agriculture, education, health, science and technology cannot be overemphasised, while The Gambia on her part is aggressively defending the rights of Taiwan at the international stage.

The visit, as the president himself stated while speaking to reporters at the Banjul International Airport, was a success. Of course, news that Taiwan has boosted our naval fleet and the president’s impression of Gambian students in that country are enough to show that the visit, like the previous ones, has positive bearings on The Gambia. In addition, it is certain that the leaders of both countries, just like it was done in Banjul some months ago, discussed matters of great concern that will be of paramount significance to the two nations.

Such state visits accord the two leaders the opportunity to reaffirm the importance of building bridges across the South, which has always been their objective. It also enables them to discuss measures that can further strengthen and widen those bridges to reach our development objectives and to be able to integrate into the world economy and influence the processes that shape the new international economic relations of the 21st century.

Development is no ordinary word. It is, in effect, a commitment that, in our countries, and indeed in the global community, resources and knowledge will be brought to bear to ensure the creation of a world free of want and fear, where every human being has all the opportunities to grow and contribute her or his quota. It is to such participatory development that The Gambia and Taiwan are committed to, hence explaining the rationale behind such frequentstate visits.

We hope that the other South countries will soon follow suit in this respect, so that collectively we can trash our common predicaments. The Gambia and Taiwan aremodels in championing the success of the South in development.