The president of Taiwan is due in Banjul today for a four-day working visit. The visit will be the first by the Taiwanese leader. We wish to welcome the visiting delegation to the Smiling Coast of Africa and as well call on Gambians to turn out in their usual thousands to welcome our brother and friend, the president of Taiwan.

Since the re-establishment of diplomatic relations between The Gambia and Taiwan in 1995, the two countries have been working in pursuit of common objectives. Since then, Taiwan has been instrumental in accomplishing the development drive of this country. Its immense contribution in the field of agriculture, education, health, science and technology cannot be overemphasised, while The Gambia on its part is aggressively pressing for the right of Taiwan to participate in the United Nations and its affiliate organisations.

Such state visit will accord the two leaders the opportunity to reaffirm the importance of building bridges across the South, which has always been their objective. Moreover, they will be able 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. It will further avail them the opportunityreiterate their determination to take the necessary measures, including the identification of resources and design appropriate follow-up mechanisms to make full use of the existing bilateral ties between the two states.

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 opportunities to grow and contribute to his or her fullest potential.Effective participation in decision-making, since these decisions affect each citizen intimately, is therefore a sine qua non for development.It is to such participatory development that The Gambia and Taiwan is committed, hence explaining their determination to engendering South-South cooperation.

It is the ambition of President Jammeh that the South countries emancipate themselves from poverty and underdevelopment using their own available means. This is why he spares no efforts in ensuring that strong diplomatic ties exist among us. We hope that the other South countries will soon follow suit so that collectively we can address our common predicaments. It is unison and harmony among people of common interest that yields the achievement of success. The Gambia and Taiwan are therefore models in championing the success of the South in development. and the visit by the Taiwanese leadership will take that relationship to a new level.

Once again, we welcome the President Ma to The Gambia.