Japan is perhaps the most technologically advanced country in the world, and has always been Asia’s pride. It has remained the place for all technological discoveries and expertise in everything connected to technology. For over a decade and a half, it has been spearheading the developmental activities for the growth of Africa. The African economy evidently needed a big push towards development and Japan adopted a novel way to provide Africa with the impetus to move ahead with the TICAD-The Tokyo International Conference on African Development. The conference is held every five years and the fourth one ended in May 2008, each reiterating Japan’s commitment to foster economic development in Africa.
Japan insists that growth of infrastructure is the key to overall growth and has earmarked a sum of $4 billion for this purpose. Starting now, the Japanese are helping Sub Saharan Africa make rapid progress in the field of agriculture which will see to the rice output being increased to 28 million tons in the next ten years. Those African nations facing a severe shortage of medical workers will get 100,000 health workers from Japan over the next five-year period.
The Japan Bank for International Cooperation is co-sponsoring a nickel-mining project in Madagascar, and its Sumitomo Corporation will be able to purchase 30,000 tons of nickel annually. Africa has seen Japanese companies acquire oil exploration and development rights in Namibia, Mozambique and Libya. All these require phenomenal long term capital investments for the construction of power plants, roads and communications, transmission lines and so on. Japanese manufacturing giants like Mitsubishi, Honda and Toyota have large investments in African countries. At least 70 companies from Japan have invested in Africa and over 280 companies have import and export agreements with African nations. In the field of agriculture, Japan has been assisting Africa in training farmers and has provided Africans with a hybrid variety of rice seed called Nerica, that is, New Rice for Africa, a variety that is resistant to droughts.
Africa is important for Japan not just for its reserves of oil and energy resources, but also because Africa is one continent having rare natural resources required by the Japanese for the manufacture of high tech products like electronic components, catalyzers, precision chemistry tools, high performance magnets and special steels, to name just a few. Africa is no longer a risky investment destination and Japan now rates it as a safe place to invest and expand.
Source : China Africa
