Your Majesty King Mswati III of the Kingdom of Swaziland
Your Excellency President Blaise Compaoré of Burkina Faso
Your Excellency President Fradique de Menezes of the Democratic Republic of Sao Tome and Principe
Your Excellency President Bingu wa Mutharika of the Republic of Malawi
Your Excellency Vice President Aja Isatou Nije-Saidy of the Republic of The Gambia
Esteemed Ambassadors and Representatives to Taiwan; Distinguished Guests; Ladies and Gentlemen:
Good afternoon!
I want to thank your Excellencies for contributing your most valuable comments and observations at this morning's discussions. These would be very helpful to the implementation of those projects intended to help abridge digital divide in your respective countries. My staff members have noted down in detail all the information and comments provided in the discussions. I believe these will make our work easier in terms of setting the right tone and finding the new direction for these types of projects. Of course, we will study and evaluate specific needs for each country before we formulate our cooperative policies and strategies for implementation.
We highly appreciate and value the suggestions and comments made by your Excellencies. And let me once again emphasize that after these intensive and substantive discussions, it is very important to take actions. We must be quick, efficient and thorough in implementing the consensus reached at these meetings. Only through concrete actions can we make this summit truly meaningful and worthwhile. I assure you that there will be follow-up actions to see to the realization of the results reached at the summit so that the peoples of our allies will personally witness the benefits brought about by this summit.
Taiwan will continue to assist our allies with infrastructure, public construction, health-care and food security. Only when people's basic needs are met can they have the time and leisure to learn to use information technology and to devote themselves to decreasing the gap in digital divide and thus enhance the overall national competitiveness.
I look forward to this afternoon's discussions on the theme: "Africa: Health, Sustainability and Peace". I am particularly interested in hearing your views on health issues, as I know they are of great concern to all our African allies. Taiwan has accumulated much experience in health care and disease prevention and is most enthusiastic to share our expertise and resources with our friends. We will try our best to help safeguard the health of the peoples of our African allies.
We have a Taiwanese saying: "Nothing is more important than eating, even when the king is present!" All of us had worked very hard this morning. Now let's enjoy our lunch. Thank you very much.