Sao Tome, Sao Tome and Principe, 16 June – Taiwan granted Sao Tome and Principe US$7.04 million in 2005 to boost the West African archipelago’s public investment program, making it the country’s main foreign donor, official figures showed Friday.

According to figures from Sao Tome’s Ministry of Planning and Finance, Taiwan leads the list of international donors with 48.13 percent, followed by the European Union with 23 percent, or US$3.43 million, the United Nation with US$2.65 million, the World Bank with US$970,000, Portugal with US$393,000, amongst other foreign financers.

The sectors that most benefited from Taiwanese investment were public works and infrastructures, as well as agriculture and health.

including other investments outside a bilateral cooperation program signed between Sao Tome and Taiwan in 1997, namely US$1 million per year for combating malaria, it is estimated that Taiwan has so far invested more than US$90 million in the Sao Tome archipelago.

Foreign financing represented 78 percent of public financing of Sao tome and Principe in 2005, the overall total of which reached US$18.73 million, with US$13.34 in the form of donations and the remaining US$5.30 million as loans and internal funding. (macauhub)