Foreign Minister
27 January 2009
Tokyo: South African Deputy Minister Fatima Hajaig will today Tuesday, 27
January 2009 hold discussions with Japanese Foreign Minister Nakasone in Tokyo,
Japan. Deputy Minister Hajaig is paying a four day official visit to Japan
where she, amongst others, co-chaired the 9th South AfricaâJapan Partnership
Forum together with Japanese Deputy Foreign Minister Seiko Hashimoto.
In this regard, Deputy Minister Hajaig will also today Tuesday, 27 January
2009 co-chair the closing plenary of the South AfricaâJapan Partnership
Forum.
Deputy Minister Hajaig is leading a senior South African government
delegation to Japan within the context of South Africaâs priority to strengthen
North South relations with a view to consolidating the African developmental
agenda. In this regard, Japan is a member of the G8 and Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
Deputy Minister Hajaig and Minister Nakasone are expected to discuss,
amongst others:
* the status of bilateral political, economic and trade relations between the
two countries
* domestic developments in Japan and South Africa
* recent developments within the Southern African Development Community (SADC)
and the African Union
* follow up activities of TICAD IV
* African conflict situations
* the Middle East
* Japanâs priorities and objectives for its tenure as a non-permanent member of
the United Nations Security Council
* the comprehensive reform of the global governance architecture including the
United Nations and the Bretton Woods Institutions
* global issues of interest including the financial crisis and climate
change.
While in Japan Deputy Minister Hajaig will also pay a courtesy call Senior
Vice President of the Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA).
Deputy Minister Hajaig is scheduled to return to South Africa on Friday, 30
January 2009.
Africa policy
Japanâs economic policy toward African development, taken in its entirety,
is directed within the Tokyo International Conference on African Development
(TICAD) process which was first held in 1993. TICAD has led to the
implementation of projects aimed at increasing African human resource capacity,
infrastructure development and investment. In the context of the Gleneagles G8
Summit held in July 2005, former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi committed
Japan to holding TICAD IV in 2008 in an effort at making TICAD the cornerstone
of Africa-Japan relations. Japan has long advocated the importance of ownership
of the development process by Africa in partnership with the developed
world.
At the Africa-Asia Summit in April 2005, Japan pledged to double its
Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) to Africa in the next three years. If
implemented, such ODA would then amount to 0.7 percent of Japanâs GDP. However,
Japan still falls short of this target (see below). Japan is of the opinion
that based on the Asian experience, the key to African economic development is
to foster private sector development through the promotion of trade and
investment. In line with this, Japan hosted the TICAD Asia-Africa Trade and
Investment Conference in November 2004.
For Japan, South Africa is a strategic partner in the furthering of its
Africa strategy. Japan views its support to South Africa in the context of the
latter being a gateway to the rest of Africa and as a result both countries are
exploring trilateral co-operation on specific projects as the new frontier for
co-operation between South Africa and Japan.
ODA to Africa TICAD
At the Fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD
IV) convened by the Japanese Government in Yokohama in May 2008, the
participants compiled the Yokohama Action Plan that lays out assistance
measures to be implemented by countries or organisations in support of African
development. At the same time the TICAD follow-up mechanism was established to
regularly report on the progress status of assistance measures announced
through the TICAD process, to review or evaluate them at Ministerial level, and
to issue new proposals. The TICAD IV Secretariat established under the
Director-General for African Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs updates
and publishes the progress status of the assistance measures detailed in the
Yokohama Action Plan.
The Government of Japan plans to hold a TICAD Process Monitoring Joint
Committee meeting in February 2009 in Tokyo to compile a report based on the
progress of each assistance measure; and also to hold a TICAD follow-up
ministerial meeting in March 2009 in Gaborone (dates still to be confirmed, but
provisionally scheduled for 21 to 22 March 2009, level of participants and
invitations to follow) to discuss the implementation of the assistance measures
based on the report. In addition, Japan has exchanged views regularly with
members of the African diplomatic corps in Tokyo and intends to carefully
manage the TICAD follow-up mechanism in order to ensure that the assistance
measures announced in TICAD IV are steadily implemented. (This development
should be viewed in the light of criticism of the donor countries in many
international fora to the effect that ample aid for development has been
promised on many occasions but very little has been disbursed the commitments
are not being realised, for various reasons).
The TICAD IV Yokohama Action Plan provides for assistance to African
Governments under the following broad categories:
* boosting economic growth
* trade, investment and tourism
* agriculture
* infrastructure
* Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
* community development
* education
* health
* consolidation of peace and good governance
* addressing environment/climate change issues
* broadening partnership.
As regards the levels of ODA to be made available under TICAD, the following
were relevant recent developments:
* During the G8 Gleneagles Summit in 2005, Japan made a commitment to double
ODA to Africa over the next three years and to increase ODA by $10 billion over
the next 10 years. However, Japanâs ODA (net of debt relief) decreased in 2007
due to a 48 percent decrease in multilateral assistance.
* Following a decline in Japanâs ODA in 2007, Japan made a new commitment to
double bilateral ODA to Africa by 2012 during the TICAD IV Summit in May 2008.
It was estimated that approximately 24 percent of Japan's global ODA would be
allocated to Africa in 2008.
* In various meetings and multilateral fora (including the 11th APF), Japan
committed to meet its ODA and TICAD IV commitments in spite of the pending
global financial crisis. Similarly, during the first TAC meeting held in Tokyo
on 5 November 2008, Japan stated that the global financial crisis did not
impact as much on the Japanese banking sector, but that the economy in general
was suffering due to the global decline. However, it was emphasised that the
pledges of former Prime Minister Fukuda at TICAD IV would be fulfilled.
Bilateral economic relations
The South Africa-Japan bilateral relationship takes place under the auspices
of the annual partnership forum. The purpose of the partnership forum is to
provide a framework within which both countries are able to continuously work
towards strengthening, developing and broadening relations at high levels to
the benefit of both countries. Discussions are held over a wide variety of
areas such as: domestic and international political issues, development
co-operation, science and technology, health, economy, education, agriculture,
safety and security and culture.
Both countries wish to see an increase in trilateral co-operation with third
countries in the rest of Africa in an effort to extend and promote economic
growth on the continent.
Japan is a very important trading partner for South Africa in 2005 Japan
became (and still remains) South Africaâs number one export partner, followed
by the United Kingdom (UK), United State (US) and Germany. It is our fourth
largest import partner after Germany, China, and the US. In the past decade,
South Africa has consolidated its position as Japanâs most important trading
partner in Africa. Broadly speaking the trading relationship is a typical North
South relationship with South Africa importing technology-intensive goods from
Japan and exporting base metals. However, in recent years, this is changing
with trade in more value-added goods such as motor vehicles forming part of our
exports to Japan.
South Africa - Japan total trade (Rands â 000)
Exports
2004: 26,601,871
2005: 33,156,988
2006: 41,315,989
Imports:
20004: 20,942,096
2005: 23,750,596
2006: 30,261,109
Total trade:
2004: 47,543,967
2005: 56,907,584
2006: 71,577,098
Trade balance:
2004: 5,659,775
2005: 9,406,392
2006: 11,854,880
Source: customs and excise Republic of South Africa (RSA)
Foreign direct investment
Since 1994, there have been over 42 major investments in South Africa by
Japanese companies, amounting to more than US$1 billion.
Ronnie Mamoepa
Cell: 082 990 4853
Issued by: Department of Foreign Affairs
27 January 2009
