Hua said the summit declaration showed that Japan finally had to accept the views of African countries, focus on maritime security cooperation in Africa, and follow the principles on the UNSC reform reached at the 2015 TICAD summit in Yokohama.
Advertisement
Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (L) flanked by Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta address news conference following bilateral talks at State House in Kenya’s capital Nairobi, August 28, 2016.
The Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) was established in 1993 by the Government of Japan with the aim of promoting Africa’s development, peace and security through the strengthening of relations in multilateral cooperation and partnership.
He gave the breakdown of the amount as 10 billion dollars to be injected in the next 12 months while the remaining 30 billion dollars would be expended over a three-year period on areas key to African economies, targeting infrastructures such as roads, energy, ports, hospitals and training institutions.
In the past 23 years since TICAD was initiated Tokyo through its external donor agency the Official Development Assistance (ODA) has disbursed to Africa US$47 billion, the equivalent of N$752 billion.
Since 2000, the total value of China’s trade with Africa has surged over twentyfold.
“This is an investment that has faith in Africa’s future”.
Japan-Africa Trade amounted to United States dollars 24 billion in 2015 compared to USD 180 billion for China-Africa trade.
During the conference, Japan pledged Sh3 trillion in various investments geared at transforming Africa’s economy.
He said Japan had also vowed to aid Kenya in tackling terrorism.
Seijiro Takeshita, an economist and professor at the University of Shizuoka, said the political reasoning behind Japan’s decision was to secure itself on global and regional fronts.
Still, many African countries expressed support for China after the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague in July turned down China’s claims in its territorial dispute with the Philippines in the South China Sea.
Advertisement
To compete with China in Africa, Japan needs to adopt a long-term approach to build steady efforts for expanding job opportunities and cultivating human resources, analysts say.
