Japan is all set to play the host to the fourth round of the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) which will be held between 28th and 30th May. TICAD was started in 1993 and is organized once in every five years along with the UN, the World Bank and other organizations. Leaders from 44 African nations are bound to converge at Tokyo to improve ties with Japan on trade, and will also focus on overcoming food crisis and diseases in their continent. Prime Minister of Japan Yasuo Fukuda, last week has announced to double the annual aid to Africa up to $1.8 billion by 2012. Japan too likes to play a key role in the African continent, especially in a scenario where China and India have made inroads, hitherto a low priority region since globalization.
Fukuda in a speech stated that three decades ago, Asia’s per capita income was on par with that of Africa’s, but the latter still remained backward in terms of socio-economic growth. It was a call to replicate the Asian business model to achieve all round growth for the African continent to come out of several crises which are dogging them since long. He made such a statement to draw the attention of the visiting leaders to get inspired, and to rebuild Africa.
As part of Japan’s sustained effort to accomplish the permanent seat in the UN Security Council, through the summit, the country hopes to garner the support of the African nations which account for about 30% of the world nations. It also wants to ensure regular supplies of minerals, oil and precious metals, key ingredients in electronic equipment. Beyond strengthening the alliance, Japan is understood to lay emphasis on respecting human rights and weeding out corruption, in the forthcoming summit. Analysts averred, the summit’s success would depend on accepting certain norms by the African nations in the area of democratization and good governance, something that always topped the agenda of any summit which Africa been part of.