Japanese Prime Minister Pledges Doubling of Food in Africa
Less than a week before the FAO conference is scheduled to
begin in Rome, Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda addressing
the Fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development
(TICAD IV) in Japan's port city of Yokohama, 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 tons over the next 10 years."
"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," he said.
"If I were to liken the history of African development to a great
narrative, then what we are about to do now is to open to a new
page, titled the `century of African growth.' In the future,
Africa will become a powerful engine driving the growth of the
world. Through preparations for TICAD IV, I believe that we have
come to share a common intuition about Africa's prospects for the
future.
"Here at this juncture, Japan wants to walk alongside the
African people, shoulder to shoulder. In order to boost the
momentum for African growth, the most important thing is the
development of infrastructure. The infrastructure that Japan is
to build must be the `people's infrastructure,' bringing
prosperity to communities and the people living there," Prime
Minister Fukuda said.
The summit was attended by 52 African governments, including
some 40 heads of state and government, 12 Asian countries, 22
donor nations, the EU, and officials from 16 African regional
organizations and 55 international organizations. Fukuda met
personally with 29 African presidents and premiers on Tuesday and
Wednesday and is scheduled to meet another 11 African leaders on
Thursday.
During the conference, Fukuda announced that Japan would
double its official development assistance (ODA) in the next five
years. The Japanese package includes up to $4 billion of soft
loans to Africa over the next five years to help improve
infrastructure. Fukuda also said that Japan would train 100,000
people in Africa over the next five years as health care workers.
Japan's External Affairs Ministry spokesman, Kazuo Kodama,
said the results of TICAD IV will be fed into the G-8 summit in
Hokkaido in Japan scheduled to be held July 7-9. Japanese Prime
Minister Fukuda will also be going to the FAO conference in Rome
next week.
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