Japan pledges to double Africa aid during TICAD, explores investment opportunities

Fukuda said Japan's official development assistance (ODA) would double by 2012, bringing its five-year average annual ODA to $1.8 billion from the current $900 million.

Grant aid and technical cooperation for Africa over the next five years would also be doubled, bringing the five-year average to $1.4 billion from $700 million now, he said.

In addition, the government would give $4 billion in soft loans to Africa by 2012 to boost construction, transportation and infrastructure spending in the continent, the prime minister said, adding, "If I were to liken the history of African development to a volume of literature, then what we are about to do now is open a new page entitled the 'Century of African Growth'."

A $2.5 billion fund would also be set up within the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), a government-backed lending agency to help Japanese companies investing in Africa and to help boost the region's rice output, he added.

"Japan wants to move forward together with the countries of Africa as we work to ensure that the 21st century becomes the century of African growth," Fukuda said.

"As Africa seeks to achieve its own Green Revolution, I would like to put out a call for action aiming to double the current rice production output of 14 million tonnes over the next 10 years," he said, adding, "We are deeply concerned that many African countries are seeing great difficulty as a result of the recent sharp rise in food prices."

A significant portion of Japan's recently promised emergency food assistance package equivalent to $100 million would be provided to Africa, Fukuda said.

"With a wealth of agricultural experience, Japan is willing to cooperate with countries and international organizations to develop irrigation systems, improve the varieties of crops raised and foster workers in the field of agriculture," the prime minister said.

Japan would also train 100,000 people in health care over the next five years in Africa, where there is a shortage of 1.5 million health workers, Fukuda said.

The African leaders have welcomed Japan's commitment to help develop ties with Africa.

"Essentially, we believe that Africa's future growth lies in trade, not aid," said Thabo Mbeki, President of South Africa.

"Without discounting the importance of aid, improved terms of trade for Africa are critical to ensure the full integration into the global economy," Mbeki said.

"There are two important areas that need urgent attention which can help reinvigorate our relationship, and these are trade and investment," said Botswana's vice president, Mompati Merafhe. "While we recognize Japan's recent efforts to improve trade relations with Africa, a lot still needs to be done."

"African nations need to be able to trade the natural resources for the right prices. For that, we want to see markets open so we can get income from those natural resources," President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia said.

During the three-day conference, which will end on May 30, Fukuda will hold bilateral talks with about 52 African leaders, including head of states and prime ministers to discuss scope of expanding economic cooperation between Japan and Africa.

Japan is seeking to expand in influence in Africa, where it is competing with India and China for access to the continent's vast untapped natural resources.

According to Japan's Finance Ministry, Japan's trade with Africa was $27.7 billion in 2007 (a meager 2 percent of its overall trade) compared to China's $73.6 billion.

This year, TICAD, which started in 1993 as part of Japan's bid to win a permanent seat on the United Nations (UN) Security Council and is held every five years, will see the attendance of some 2,500 participants and international agencies, including activists like the Irish rock star Bono.

Besides discussing ways of how Japan can aid economic development in Africa, the conference is expected to focus on finding ways to meet the UN's millennium development goals, a set of eight globally agreed targets to be reached by 2015.

As this year marks the halfway point to achieve the goals, which include halving the number of people living in poverty on less than $1 a day and providing universal primary education, concerns are growing that most countries may fail to meet them.

Aid experts and activists who are urging developed nations to raise aid to developing countries by $50 billion per year by 2010, half of which would go to Africa, fear that the donor countries will fail to meet their promises.

An international report released earlier this year showed that Japan's foreign aid dropped 30 percent in 2007 and has fallen to the fifth place among major donors.

The three-day conference titled "Toward a Vibrant Africa: A continent of Hope and Opportunity" is being co-organized by the Government of Japan, the United Nations Office of the Special Advisor on Africa, the United Nations Development Program and the World Bank.