Taiwan and the Gambia

Taiwan's dollar diplomacy viewed from the other side: this report from a newspaper in Gambia:

Eleven staff from the Department of State for Communication and Information Technology (DoSCIT), the Department of State for Agriculture, Gamtel, GRTS and a student, have completed a training on computer repairs and maintenance at the new Computer Maintenance and Repairs Centre of DoSCIT, under the tutorship of River Huang, an IT expert from the International Cooperation Development Fund (ICDF) of Taiwan.

The centre - started operation in April this year - is an addendum to the list of computer centres established by Taiwan in Sapu in Central River Region, the Gambia Multimedia Training Institute and the Department of State for Education. It also came after a team of IT experts from Taipei implemented the e-government programme which included the installation of e-mail and web server, besides holding training on the use of the facility.

Confirming this in an interview with the Daily Observer, Dr Patrick Chang, Taiwanese Ambassador to The Gambia, said these strides complements government's effort towards transforming the country into the silicon valley of Africa. Dr Chang said the e-government programme is now being managed by Ebrahima Jobe, who is also responsible for the portal page.

That's hosted on AllAfrica.com, probably the best portal for news and views of the continent.

[Taiwan]