Japan plans more investment in Africa
WE WILL put in every effort to surpass the US$20billion private sector investment milestone achieved by Japanese private enterprises in Africa in the past three years, Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe has said.
Mr. Abe said his government was committed to supporting investments meant to shape the future of Africa because the continent had been a true partner of Japan.
He was Speaking when he opened the Seventh Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD7) in Yokohama yesterday,
He said the new TICAD initiative had been a springboard for Africa’s sustained development with his country and that he would do whatever it took to ensure that Japanese companies surpassed their current investment portfolio on the continent.
“For the past three years, Japanese private investment into Africa have reached 20 US$ billion from companies founded more than a century ago to start-ups. The investors all seek value in Africa.
“This new TICAD initiative is a magnificent springboard. It is a partnership that leads to a greater height of entrepreneurship and enterprise with investment and innovation.
“The Government of Japan will put forward, every possible effort so that the power of the Japanese private investment of US$20 billion enterprise put up in the past three years in Africa, should in the years to come be surpassed,” Mr. Abe said.
He said through close collaborations with local financial institutions, his Government would create a new trading insurance that could cover 100 percent of all transactions to assist the advancement of Japanese companies into Africa.
He said the new TICAD would offer support entrepreneurship, enterprise, investment, and innovation in Africa.
“The new TCAD will support Japanese investments which are shaking the future of Africa. We are in an era where the challenges Africa faces will be resolved through science technology and innovation.
“Japan wants to enhance the “indoor pacific” which connects Japan to Africa with great care as an international good permeated by the rule of law. “I would like to introduce an idea which the new TICAD came up with aimed at fostering Africa’s prosperity. The idea is Japan’s New Peace and Stability in Africa (NAPSA) which will work together with regional economic communities in conflict resolution and mediation,” he said.
He said as a country that believed in the power of Africa, it had realised that the TICAD philosophy would foster partnerships and valuing each human being individually and that this will not affect in any slightest way, the relationships between African and Japan.