The first Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) was held in 1993, cosponsored by Japan, the United Nations and the World Bank. Leaders from 45 African countries are attending the fourth TICAD in Yokohama this week. Serving as meeting chairman, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda is trying to lay foundations for fruitful discussions on sustainable development in Africa and on the fight against global warming at the Group of Eight summit to be held in July in Hokkaido.
Africa has lagged behind in economic development compared with Asia and Latin America. But recently Africa has seen a fairly high economic growth mainly due to high prices of oil and mineral resources. African countries can use their recent growth as the basis for sustainable economic growth. Japan appears to have fulfilled its promise of doubling its official development assistance (ODA) to Africa in 2007 from the 2003 level. But most of the ODA was for debt relief.
African countries want investment in their countries as well as ODA for infrastructure building and other purposes. Mr. Fukuda is expected to announce a plan to double, over the next five years, not only Japan's ODA to Africa to an annual ¥200 billion but also the investment by Japanese firms in the continent. Japan will also propose improvement of trade insurance and a new financing facility for investment. Seeking ways to effectively use ODA to encourage enterprises to invest in Africa will become important.