Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 30 Nov. - 6 Dec. 2000 Issue No.510

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Big is beautiful

By Gamal Nkrumah

Last Thursday Yasuaki Nogawa, deputy director-general of Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs Middle East and Africa Bureau, chaired an unprecedented meeting of Japanese ambassadors to seven African countries, both north and south of the Sahara. Nogawa presented a stark challenge to the continent's decision-makers: integrate African economies or suffer a loss of foreign direct investment (FDI). To draw the most from potential Japanese investment in Africa the continent must speed up the process of economic integration. Faster economic growth rates can only be accomplished within the optimum zone of development, which is the entire African continent.

Over the past decade, Japan's Africa policy has centred around the Tokyo International Conference for Development (TICAD). Japan, currently the single most important donor nation in Africa, hosted TICAD I in Tokyo in 1993 and TICAD II in 1998. No plans are as yet set for TICAD III, but last week's Cairo brainstorming meeting of Japan's African ambassadors was viewed as a follow-up of the TICAD process.

So why was Cairo chosen as the venue for the meeting of Japanese ambassadors in Africa? "On the occasion of TICAD II, Japan and Egypt agreed upon setting up the Japan-Egypt Triangular Technical Co-operation Programme for the Promotion of South-South Co-operation in Africa. Both Japan and Egypt have been working together for their joint development programmes in which Egypt receives trainees from other African countries in a variety of fields ranging from agriculture, medical and healthcare training, engineering and IT," Nogawa told Al-Ahram Weekly.

Nogawa revealed that last year Japan funded the training of some 50 African trainees in the fields of rice culture, combating infectious and tropical disease, architecture, construction and telecommunications. "[Japan] collaborates with the Egyptian Foreign Ministry's Technical Development Fund in facilitating the training of Africans in Egypt. Japan sees Egypt as an ideal partner for facilitating South-South co-operation in Africa. The relatively more advanced level of economic development makes Egypt an appropriate country to train professionals from less developed African countries. Japan also implements similar training programmes with South Africa, Tunisia and Morocco," Nogawa added.

According to Nogawa, most African countries are doing the right thing by embracing market-friendly structural reforms. But, he notes, Africa has a serious impediment: rampant conflicts. It is for this reason that Japan has devoted considerable funds for conflict prevention and resolution in Africa. Total Japanese financial contribution to prevent and resolve conflicts in Africa stood at $600 million in 1999. Japanese financial support to African regional organisations has become an important facet of Japanese aid to Africa. Since 1996, Japan has directly contributed $1,454,000 to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) Peace Fund. Japan also contributed an additional $100,000 to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

"We attach great importance to financially supporting continental and regional organisations such as the OAU, ECOWAS, and the Economic Community of Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA)," Nogawa said. "We want such organisations to play a more decisive role in the development process."

Japan has been a staunch backer of ECOWAS peacekeeping activities in the West African countries of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea Bissau. Japanese food aid programmes and aid for refugees and internally displaced people is welcomed by West African countries because, unlike the United States and the former colonial powers in the region -- Britain, France and Portugal, there are no strings attached to Japanese largesse. Overall Japanese ODA to Africa now hovers at about $1 billion annually. The main recipients of Japanese official development assistance (ODA) in Africa are countries that, according to Nogawa, "enjoy political stability and vibrant democracy", such as Ghana and Senegal in West Africa and Kenya and Tanzania in East Africa.

"As the world's largest donor country, Japan has made active financial contribution through its disbursement of ODA for economic and social development in Africa. In 1999, Japan made a contribution of assistance approximately amounting to $950 million to the countries of Africa south of the Sahara," Nogawa told the Weekly. According to a recent opinion poll, more than 70 per cent of Japanese people support the current level of Japanese ODA to Africa. However, Nogawa said the Japanese Foreign Ministry was now working on convincing the Japanese taxpayer of the need to contribute even more ODA at a time when the Japanese economy was still reeling from recession.

The plight of the 6.2 million African refugees who have been under the protection of or have received aid from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has also been at the forefront of Japanese concern. Since the 1994 Rwandan genocide of an estimated one million ethnic Tutsi, Japan has implemented refugee assistance of approximately $300 million to the Great Lakes region, focusing on Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The acute vulnerability of African economies to external shocks is another serious problem related to the smallness of market size and the volatility of commodity prices in the international markets. It is for this reason that Japanese ODA now focuses on assisting cash-strapped African countries to build their socio-economic infrastructure. Among the Japanese diplomats who gathered in Cairo last week was Ambassador Takashia Sasaki, ambassador of Japan to Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation. He pointed to the recently inaugurated electrification project for rural areas in the northern state of Nassarawa funded by Japan as an example of how Japan is tackling the problems of underdevelopment in Africa. Japan signed an electrification agreement with Nigeria worth some $11 million. More than 60 per cent of Nigeria's 125 million population live in dwellings unconnected to the national grid.

"Individually African markets are too small to attract FDI. We therefore attach great importance to regional and continental markets. Bigger markets are essential if Africa is to realise its full economic potential," Nogawa said. That such statements need to be made by Africa's major donors amounts to a belated recognition of the slow pace of African economic integration, which acts as a hindrance to development, FDI inflow and trade. That such boosting of continental economic integration is deemed to be necessary is a reflection of the donor nations' impatience with the slow pace of African economic integration. It is therefore imperative that African countries heed the Japanese advice. If African economic integration fails, all bets on the continent's future prosperity are off.

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