The Deputy Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Mr Marius Fransman, will lead a South African delegation to the Fifth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD-V) Ministerial Preparatory Meeting scheduled for 16 to 17 March 2013 at the African Union (AU) Headquarters in Addis Ababa, Federal Republic of Ethiopia.
TICAD is a strategic partnership between Africa and Japan that was launched in 1993, with a view to serve as a consultative forum for development assistance to Africa. Over the past 20 years, this partnership has evolved into a strategic multilateral platform that has aligned its priorities to the AU/NEPAD development objectives for Africa, while also advocating the twin principles of “African ownership” and “international partnership”.
This year marks the 20th Anniversary of the TICAD Process and it coincides with the 50th Anniversary of the founding of the OAU/AU. As such, South Africa’s participation in the upcoming TICAD meetings is premised on the AU strategic objective of ensuring that all global partnerships with Africa should support the African development priorities, while also strengthening Africa’s participation in global affairs as an equal partner.
In this regard, South Africa is of the view that TICAD-V meetings will provide a platform for frank discussions between Japan, African Governments, TICAD partners and other relevant stakeholders on how this partnership can further contribute to the African development priorities in the next five years, especially since the TICAD III Summit of 2003 made a clear commitment to supporting NEPAD as the AU strategic framework for pan-African socio-economic development.
In its 20 years of existence, the TICAD Process has succeeded in: (a) mobilising and sustaining international focus on the need to support the African Agenda, (b) facilitated the expansion of Japanese FDI to Africa, (c) increased the quality of trade with Africa, which in 2011 stood at US$30.4 billion, and (d) increased cooperation in the areas of human resource development, infrastructure development, science and technology, and other areas of mutual interest.
The Japanese private sector investments in Africa are largely based in the following sectors: construction, renewable energy, manufacturing, telecommunications, automotives and pharmaceuticals.
The Deputy Minister will be supported by Senior Officials from the Department of International Relations and Cooperation.
For further information:
Clayson Monyela
Spokesperson for DIRCO
Cell: 082 884 5974
