Tokyo — Public-private partnerships between Asia and Africa topped the agenda Monday during the opening of the Asia-Africa Trade and Investment Conference (AATIC) in Tokyo, Japan, as nearly 350 African and Asian leaders sought to highlight positive examples of cooperation between the two continents.
"In the last half century, Asia achieved unprecedented economic growth which was once dubbed the 'East Asian Miracle,'" Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said in his opening address. "In fact, this was not a miracle, but the fruit of tireless efforts by the Asian people. The purpose of Asia-Africa cooperation is to share and make use of the Asian experiences for African development."
AATIC is a follow-up conference to last year's TICAD III, the Third Tokyo International Conference on African Development, a Japanese-led initiative to spur development in Africa.
Since the first TICAD conference in 1993, trade between Asia and Africa has grown dramatically, although it is still small compared to Asia's overall levels of trade. Exports from Africa to Asia are growing faster than with any other trading partners, recording 10 percent growth rates each year during the last decade, according to the World Bank. African exports to Asia have grown even faster than trade between Asian countries.
African representatives say they hope to take advantage of these trends by finding investors who will build factories, train workers and spur development in their countries.
Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki highlighted potential investment opportunities in Kenya's tourism, construction, agricultural and manufacturing industries during his keynote address. He said AATIC and TICAD should be just one part of growing relationships between Asian and African countries.
"There is a need for us to continue building bridges between the business communities in the two continents," Kibaki said. "We need more contacts amongst our business communities through investment fora, trade fairs and opening up of trade offices."
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo took this analysis one step further, proposing a permanent Japan-Africa Trade and Investment Center to link the African countries and regional trade bodies with Asian partners.
Conference participants say they hope AATIC discussions will offer new information to Asian investors about business opportunities in Africa.
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"We need more visits to our countries by the Asian private sector to see what is actually happening," said Oteng Tebape, Botswana's ambassador to Japan. "[In Botswana], we have long recognized the role of the private sector in development."
Tebape said that although he hopes the conference will help investors differentiate between countries, the entire African continent is looking at the private sector differently today.
"Continent-wide we have initiatives that address the concerns of the private sector," he said. "It's only that, in most cases, the bad news tends to be shown, but we do have good news."
Ambassador Shinsuke Horiuchi, Adviser to the Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs, agreed that poor information has led some in the Asian business community to believe they can't make money in Africa.
"Information [about] failure travels very fast," Horiuchi said. "Successful businessmen keep their mouths shut."
One Japanese businessman who is sharing his experience in Africa is Yuichi Kashiwada, the Managing Director of Phenix Logistics Uganda Ltd. Kashiwada manages a textile firm that makes yarn from organic cotton, which is knitted into fabric and sewn into clothes for export to Europe. He said the time is ripe for investment in Africa and that there are "tremendous opportunities," especially for industries processing or adding value to agricultural products.
Tomorrow, conference participants will report back on the needs of the private sector and the appropriate policies they think African and donor governments must implement to increase trade and investment between Asia and Africa.
AATIC is sponsored by the Government of Japan, the World Bank, UNDP, and the Global Coalition for Africa.
