Sao Tome, Sao Tome and Principe, 24 Sept – Taiwan has provided US$15 million to Sao Tome and Principe for the construction of a new thermal power station in order to overcome the energy crisis on the archipelago, the president of Sao Tome said Friday.

Fradique de Menezes made the announcement whilst summarizing his visit to Taiwan a week ago where he to9ok part in the economic form between Taiwan and five African countries with which it has diplomatic relations.

Menezes said that Taiwan’s financial support had been confirmed by his Taiwanese counterpart, Chen Chu Bian, at the end of a meeting held on the sidelines of the summit.

Menezes said that the Taiwanese funding was part of a fund that had already been authorized for Sao Tome for the construction of a conference center.

The Sao Tome president said that a Taiwanese technical team was due to travel to Sao Tome in the next few days to assess the needs of the country’s energy market.

National water and electricity company, EMAE is the country’s only producer and distributor of electricity on the archipelago, where there have been successive energy crises involving constant power cuts.

It is estimated that there is demand of 15 megawatts of energy in Sao Tome and Principe and that Emae is only able to supply 12 megawatts. (macauhub)