Japan will hold a major conference on African development this week amid growing competition with its regional rivals for influence in the poverty-stricken but resource-rich continent.
With China and India seeking to forge closer ties with the region and secure commodities to fuel their economic booms, the event is seen as a key opportunity for Japan to maintain its diplomatic clout.
Japan has invited 52 African countries to the Fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development, which it hosts every five years along with the UN, the World Bank and other organizations.
BIG NAMES
Leaders from 44 African countries are expected to meet in Yokohama, southwest of Tokyo, including Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir and South African President Thabo Mbeki.
Talks will focus on tackling food shortages, boosting economic growth and reducing poverty.
Japan has long used aid as a key diplomatic tool. It was the world’s top donor in 1991, but its assistance is slipping as the debt-laden country tightens its belt.
Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda is expected to formally announce plans at the conference to double Japan’s financial assistance to Africa by 2012.
“We must bring more fresh money to help African partners,” Masato Kitera, director-general for African affairs, said at Japan’s foreign ministry.
PRIVATE INVESTMENT
Japan hopes to use some of its overseas development aid (ODA) to help spur badly needed private-sector interest in the war-ravaged continent.
Japanese companies “may hesitate to invest in Africa, judging the risk or the cost as too high,” Kitera said. “The Japanese ODA can reduce the risk or cost of the private sector going to Africa.”
The event, which is expected to draw 2,500 participants, comes as Japan looks to boost its diplomatic profile ahead of the G8 summit, which it will host in July.
Gaining support from African countries, which account for about 30 percent of the world’s nations, is key for Japan to achieve its diplomatic goals, such as a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, officials said.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
JOINT EFFORTS: The three countries have been strengthening an alliance and pressing efforts to bolster deterrence against Beijing’s assertiveness in the South China Sea The US, Japan and the Philippines on Friday staged joint naval drills to boost crisis readiness off a disputed South China Sea shoal as a Chinese military ship kept watch from a distance. The Chinese frigate attempted to get closer to the waters, where the warships and aircraft from the three allied countries were undertaking maneuvers off the Scarborough Shoal — also known as Huangyan Island (黃岩島) and claimed by Taiwan and China — in an unsettling moment but it was warned by a Philippine frigate by radio and kept away. “There was a time when they attempted to maneuver