Three college students from the Republic of The Gambia have recently begun an internship program at a gas station run by Taiwan's state-operated petroleum company, attracting public attention. Several customers at the CPC Corp. gas station in southern Taiwan's Chiayi City said it was 'new and interesting' to see foreign students working there. Two of the students are girls -- Tsaton Jallow and Astatou Jallow -- who have been studying at National Taipei University of Technology for four years, and the other is Madun Sanyang, who studied in Britain for a year before coming to Taiwan, according to Lee Tien-chieh, head of the CPC's Chiayi-Tainan branch office. They were assigned by the Gambia National Petroleum Company to take a three-week training program Dec. 7-25 on gas station operation and management in Taiwan, in anticipation of the establishment of the first state-run gas station in The Gambia, scheduled to open in 2010. At present, there are four private companies involved in the liquid fuel retail business in the West African country. Lee said the students will learn to operate the software and hardware at the gas station, explaining they must know how to handle oil tanks and oil-loading operations, how to operate the gas pumps and how to keep the accounts. They also need to learn standard procedures for pumping and handling complaints, he added. The Gambia is the smallest country on mainland Africa, with an estimated population of 1.54 million. 