By Abdul Tejan-Cole
On August 28-30, 2019, 26 African heads of state including the Presidents of Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Guinea, Benin, Rwanda, South Africa and Kenya were in Yokohama, Japan, to attend the 7th Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD7).
TICAD was initiated more than a quarter of a century ago, in 1993, with the aim of bringing global attention back to Africa following the end of the capitalist and communist scramble for influence in various parts of the continent during the Cold War. Its ambition was to promote high-level policy dialogue between African leaders, Japan and development partners. According to the Japanese Government’s website, “TICAD’s innovative approaches include advocating African ownership and international partnership; promoting the participation of international organizations, donor countries, private sector and civil society; and creating follow-up and review mechanisms to ensure the progress of programmes and projects.”
TICAD is co-sponsored and organized by the Japanese government along with the African Union, the United Nations – including the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) – and the World Bank. The theme for this year’s TICAD7 Summit was “(A)dvancing Africa's development through people, technology and innovation.” The three pillars of the TICAD7 Summit were accelerating economic transformation and improving the business environment through innovation and private sector engagement; deepening sustainable and resilient society and strengthening peace and stability. Initially, the meetings were held every five years, but it has been reduced to three years. The next meeting will take place in Africa, likely Benin, in 2022.
Although Japan has contributed significantly to Africa’s development and growth, this fact is hardly known. Through its official development assistance arm, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), it has given aid in the form of grants and loans and invested on local ownership, peace, governance and human rights.
Japan has also contributed to setting-up vocational training centers in various African countries and extended assistance to African universities in the fields of natural science and engineering. Part of the reason little is known about the Japanese assistance in Africa is because the usually shy and polite Japanese do not often organize big press conferences for every support. Their strategy has also been to provide the resources through partners with international agencies, including the UN, rather than do so directly.
However, this is gradually changing. Japan is upping its game in Africa especially on trade. Last year, it had nearly 9% increase in trade. Since TICAD6 in 2016, Japanese private investment in Africa has reached $20 billion. The Asian Tiger is moving away from providing development assistance and aid to governments, to trade and investment. It is beginning to see Africa more as a business partner.
TICAD’s new focus is on the double E’s of “entrepreneurship” and “enterprise,” as well as the double I’s of “investment” and “innovation.” The final communiqué, the “Yokohama Declaration 2019”, underscored the importance of private sector development, digital transformation, and youth and women entrepreneurship as strategies for implementing the priority areas of TICAD 7. The “Yokohama Action Plan 2019” reaffirms that the initiatives and actions taken will be aligned whenever possible with African and international frameworks such as the AU Agenda 2063 and its First Ten Year Implementation Plan, as well as with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. As part of the way forward, there are plans to establish a permanent council to coordinate corporate efforts to get a more significant share of the African market. In his keynote speech at TICAD7, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe set a goal of nurturing 3,000 personnel to play a leading role in business between Japan and Africa.
The benefits from Japan-Africa relationship are two ways and are not only economic. Like Africa, Japan is keen on UN Security Council reform and wants to have a seat as a Permanent Member on the Security Council. The Yokohama Declaration reiterates “that the reform of the Security Council should be addressed in a comprehensive, transparent and balanced manner, addressing all the five key issues including the question of the veto, and should garner the widest possible political acceptance by Member States through the intergovernmental negotiations that are fully owned and led by Member States, as stipulated in the UN General Assembly Decision 62/557.”
It acknowledges “the historical injustice against Africa with regard to its representation in the Security Council, and expresses support for full African representation in the Security Council, through not less than two Permanent seats with all the prerogatives and privileges of Permanent membership including the right of veto, and five Non-permanent seats, in line with the African Common Position as enshrined in Ezulwini Consensus and Sirte Declaration.” The Declaration stops short of endorsing the G4 (Germany, Japan, Brazil and India) position which mainly seeks permanent seats for themselves but are willing to forego their veto rights for fifteen years or longer.
Japan also needs Africa’s support for its free and open Indo-Pacific Initiative. The Declaration took “good note” of the initiative announced by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at TICAD6 in Nairobi. The Indo-Pacific is broadly to be understood as an interconnected space between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and spans from the coasts of East Africa to the west coast of the United States. Japan is seeking to pursue regional peace and prosperity by connecting the continents and oceans with secured sea lanes in the Indo-Pacific Region. The initiative aims for peace, stability and prosperity in the Pacific Ocean and Indian Ocean regions, which connect the Asian and African continents, through the promotion of the rule of law, freedom of navigation and peaceful settlement of disputes. It has received support from the United States, India and Australia, among other countries.
Looming in the background of Japan’s engagement in Africa is China. Japan’s investment on the continent is minuscule compared to China’s. Through its Belt and Road Initiative, China’s influence in Africa is immense and continues to increase. At the end of 2017, China’s direct investment stocks in Africa were at $43 billion, far above Japan’s $7.8 billion. In 2018, China’s trade with Africa amounted to $200bn, more than 12 times the value of trade between Africa and Japan.
Trade statistics for 2018 showed that China was the biggest trading partner for 20 countries in Africa. From 2000 to 2017, China loaned about $143bn to African governments and their state-owned enterprises. Last September at the High-level Dialogue between Chinese and African Leaders and Business and Industry Representatives at the sixth China-Africa Entrepreneur Conference at the Beijing National Convention Center, Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged $60bn in financing for Africa, this included $15 billion of aid, interest-free loans and concessional loans, a credit line of $20 billion, a $10 billion special fund for China-Africa development, and a $5 billion special fund for imports from Africa.
With a rapidly ageing population and a huge debt burden of its own, Japan knows it cannot compete with China’s deep pockets in Africa. However, Japan has some comparative advantages it can exploit over China. In his opening address, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe noted that Japan would focus on quality and not quantity. Japanese products like Toyota, Nissan, Toshiba, Sony, Honda and Mitsubishi are generally highly regarded as high standard and good quality in most parts of the continent especially in technology, engineering and manufacturing.
China falls woefully short in skills transfer as it brings its own workers across to build infrastructure. There are now more than one million Chinese nations residing in Africa; many of them workers engaged in various Chinese funded projects. On the other hand, Japan has a reputation of employing locals and transferring technology.
China cares less about human rights and the rule of law and has also granted questionable loans to several African countries. Japan, in contrast, focuses less on direct assistance to governments and is unwilling to take significant risks associated with governance challenges, conflicts, infrastructure and logistics hurdles that Africa faces.
Africa presents enormous opportunities for Japan. Africa is a high-growth area in the world economy and has just recently set up the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). By 2050, one in four people on earth will be African. Although the relationship is based on a win-win policy for both partners, Africa has a chance to gain more if it negotiates and engages Japan collectively through its sub-regional economic blocs rather than individually. We also need to better prepare for engagements with Japan and focus not just on the monetary gains but also look to learn and better understand some of the soft skills, including its value system and social culture, that helped Japan rebuild after the second world war.
© 2019 Politico Online
