CONTENTS | ANB-BIA HOMEPAGE | WEEKLY NEWS
|
Africa |
DEVELOPMENT
Solidarity as a basis for development
Japan is the world’s greatest donor nation. For the last ten years it has contributed about US $120 billion to development — about one-fifth of the contribution made by members of the Committee for Assistance and Development (CAD). US $30 billion will be allocated to the fight against hunger in Southern Africa. At the Johannesburg Earth Summit, Japan also gave US $4.8 billion (i.e. one-quarter of all G8’s contribution) to reduce poor countries’ debts. The Japanese government likewise intends to implement the resolutions taken to assist Africa as part of its «Solidarity between Japan and Africa» initiative, and to support the action plan for Africa put forward by the G8.
People — central to any development plan
Japan is eager to promote Africa’s development through strengthening solidarity and cooperation, as laid down in the New Plan for Africa’s Development-New Tokyo International Conference on African Development (NEPAD-TICAD), where people are clearly stated to be central to any development plan. So, Japan gives primary importance in helping to develop access to basic resources such as health, education and adequate water supplies.
Since 1998, Tokyo’s action plan has earmarked about 90 billion Yen (about US $750 million) for the above mentioned sectors. We should recall that TICAD was established in 1993 by the Japanese Government, the United Nations Programme for Development (UNPD) and the Global Coalition for Africa (GCA), to encourage Africa’s development.
This policy of boosting the importance of human resources aims at starting new initiatives in the field of education (to the tune of 250 billion Yen [US $2 billion]), over a period of five years, starting in 2002. This initiative is part of the Basic Education For Growth Initiative (BEGIN). Through the United Nations, Japan also finances the Okinawa Initiative against infectious diseases.
Africa’s integration in world economy is a «must». To achieve this, major financial resources, business exchanges, investment and public funds for development are needed. Japan is particularly interested in the importation of products from developing countries into the Japanese market, and to the quality improvement of their commercial value. A number of means are already in place such as reducing customs duty on products coming from underdeveloped countries. In fact, special arrangements regarding customs duties are foreseen for he financial year 2003.
Increasing Africa’s efficiency
To expedite the strengthening of competence and technical assistance in the business sector, the Japan International Cooperation Organisation (JICA) and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) have organised seminars and business training courses for Africa’s benefit, giving another concept to Asia-Africa cooperation.
A special emphasis underlines the African initiative, derived from experience gained from similar experiences in Asia, which takes into account regional realities. Sharing the Asian experience with Africa has contributed to stabilizing food production in Africa by means of the diffusion of NERICA (New Rice For Africa), a new rice variety combining the ruggedness of local African rice species with the high productivity traits of the Asian rice that was the mainstay of the Green Revolution.
In view of encouraging this cooperation, Japan intends to offer its support to African countries through the promotion of regional cooperation, the opening-up of their markets, and the efficient use of development resources. This encouragement rests on the effective use of the good offices of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, as well as on the strengthening of cooperation between experts in development and trade. The Economic Community of West Africa (ECOWAS) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) will likewise need to have their efforts backed-up.
For all this to succeed, good governance is needed. Only then will peace and development be possible especially within the concept of NEPAD. NEPAD saw the light of day in 2001 — the result of the fusion of pan-African economic strategies, spelled out by several African heads of state, namely those from South Africa, Nigeria and Algeria in view of disengaging Africa from underdevelopment and attracting investors.