Japan's various development supports for Africa for the coming five years, announced by Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda Wednesday at the TICAD opening session, have drawn attention and reactions from TICAD NGO network and G8 Summit NGO Network.
On the aid to boost Africa's economic growth, the NGOs are concerned about whether Africa will have the capability to repay the loans, as its debt crisis started with plunging primary commodity prices, and it is questionable whether its current economic growth is sustainable.
In response to Fukuda's plan to double grant aid and technical assistance to Africa, the NGOs said that Japan should combine this with a timetable to increase its overall aid from the current 0.17percent of Gross National Income (GNI) to 0.7 percent so that this increase of aid to Africa will not end up robbing the needed development finance from other regions.
Concerning Japan's 10 billion U.S. dollars finance for developing countries to reconcile economic growth and climate mitigation objectives, they said that the money is mainly aimed for large emitting developing countries, and it is not clear how much of it will be distributed to Africa.
The NGOs also stressed that Japan must set and achieve an ambitious mid-term Green House Gas Emission reduction target, as well as proving adaptation financing to African countries.
In his speech on Wednesday, Fukuda announced various supports, including 4 billion U.S. dollars in loans for transport infrastructure, trade insurance and 2.5 billion U.S. dollars worth of financing support for Japanese companies which are seeking investment opportunities in Africa over the next 5 years.
The Fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) opened Wednesday in Japan's southeastern port city of Yokohama. Representatives from 52 African countries, 71 international and regional organizations are present at the three-day quinquennial event, under the theme "Toward a Vibrant Africa: A continent of Hope and Opportunity."
TICAD is a policy forum for African Development which Japan initiated in 1993 and has led with other co-organizers which consist of the United Nations Office of the Special Advisor on African, the United Nations Development Program and the World Bank.
A central feature of TICAD is the cooperation between Asia and Africa.
Source:Xinhua
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