Japan is reaching out to help continent prosper
THE TOKYO International Conference on African Development (Ticad) was launched in 1993. The highlight of 2016 for us was hosting Ticad VI in Nairobi, Kenya, in August. It was the first time that this conference was held on African soil in its 23 years of existence.
It was truly a coming of age for Ticad, which pioneered a new development forum for international partnerships with Africa. Ticad originated because Japan could, in the 1990s already, foresee the continent’s future growth. Our partnership is particularly strategic “because Japan exemplifies what Africa hopes to do”, as Sir Paul Collier, Professor of Economics and Public Policy at Oxford University has commented.
The Ticad model, based on the principles of African ownership and international partnership, has since been echoed by various other forums and even become the philosophical foundation of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development.
We are grateful that the UN, the African Union Commission, the World Bank and the UN Development Programme joined us in organising the event. We are proud that Mr Ban Ki-moon, former Secretary-General of the UN, has acknowledged that Ticad discussions “contributed significantly to the incorporation of African perspectives” in the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
As an overarching forum promoting particularly south-south co-operation, we are proud that Ticad has become a prime event on the African political and development calendar. The landmark Ticad VI forum was attended by more than 11 000 delegates.
So far we have identified a share of the Ticad VI package to go towards infrastructure, such as the North-South Corridor and various power projects that will increase production capacity by 2 200MW across the continent. We look forward to the projects in which Ticad invests, benefiting from the robust technologies developed by Japanese companies.
We sincerely hope that the investment blueprint set in motion at Ticad VI will contribute to a brighter future ahead for millions of Africans. Our own experience taught us to look for practical solutions, maximising the use of approaches such as integrating logistics and production, and that is what we are looking forward to for Africa in 2017. Japan has a strong trade relationship with South Africa, with total bilateral trade in 2015 amounting to more than R90 billion (R1.17 trillion). We believe true and lasting partnerships await between Japan and South Africa.
Japan has known the hardships of postwar reconstruction and the challenges of transforming economic structure.
Japan offers expertise, insights and empowerment to our African partners. This is based on our own pioneering experience of creating opportunities for mutual benefit and prosperity by building networks between business partners around the world, including Africa.
Already about 140 Japanese companies operate in South Africa alone, creating more than 150 000 job opportunities locally.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan attended Ticad VI in August last year. He announced a new three-year, $30bn Japanese investment in Africa’s future. Ticad supports Africa’s own development initiatives, so these transformative programmes will be in line with the goals of the African Union’s Agenda 2063.
As friends do, we are happy to share our hard-won experience of making our “Land of the Rising Sun” an economic reality. We believe that this can assist South Africa and the continent as a whole in improving productivity and skills for quality growth and human security.
We also aim to enable greater skills exchange. Our investment in human-resource development to create better-skilled workforces and to promote resilient health systems across Africa includes training 20 000 maths and science teachers, as well as 20 000 experts in handling infectious diseases.
In this regard, Japan has been requested to support artisan training by the government of South Africa. Now, I am pleased to announce that the new co-operation will begin this year through dispatching Japanese experts and volunteers to TVET colleges and other related institutions.
Our partnerships reach all levels, including the annual funding through our Grant Assistance for Grassroots Human Security Projects, as well as technical support for NGOs by Japanese Overseas Co-operation Volunteers, who usually spend two years in local community organisations.
Our five-year African Business Education (ABE) Initiative for Youth offers 1 000 scholarships for young Africans to study master’s degrees at Japanese universities, combined with a level of work-integrated learning in Japanese industries. So far 83 South Africans have been awarded ABE scholarships. We actively encourage more Japanese businesses to come to South Africa and the African continent.
The Government of Japan offers South African graduates job opportunities through the Japan Exchange and Teaching (Jet) programme. This programme enables South Africans to join young people from around the world to spend between a year and five years teaching English in Japanese schools. The Jet programme seeks to enhance internationalisation in Japan by promoting mutual understanding between the people of Japan and those of other nations. Objectives of the programme are achieved by offering Jet programme participants the opportunity to serve in local authorities, as well as public and private elementary, junior high and senior high schools in Japan.
The Jet programme salary is around R30 000 a month depending on the exchange rate. South Africa joined the Jet programme in 1997 and since then, 567 South Africans have participated in it.
I look forward to working with South African people to create more job opportunities in this country.