AfricaâJapan Partnership Forum, Tokyo
23 January 2009
Pretoria: South African Deputy Minister Fatima Hajaig will on Saturday, 24
January 2009 depart for Tokyo, Japan where she will together with Japan's
Deputy Foreign Minister Seiko Hashimoto co-chair the ninth JapanâSouth Africa
Partnership Forum scheduled from Monday, 26 to Tuesday, 27 January 2009.
Deputy Minister Hajaig will co-chair the JapanâSouth Africa Partnership
Forum within the context of South Africa's priority to strengthen north-south
relations with a view to consolidating the African developmental agenda. In
this regard, Japan is a member of the G-8 and Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development (OECD).
Accordingly, Deputy Ministers Hajaig and Hashimoto and their delegations
will, during the ninth JapanâSouth Africa Partnership Forum, consider, 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 Southern African Development Community (SADC) and
the African Union (AU).
* Follow up activities of Tokyo International Conference for African
Development (TICAD) IV.
* African conflict situations.
* The Middle East.
* Japan's priorities and objectives for its tenure as a non-permanent member of
the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).
* 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.
Deputy Minister Hajaig is scheduled to return to South Africa on Friday, 30
January 2009.
Africa Policy
Japan's 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
Official Development Assistance (ODA) to Africa in the next three years. If
implemented, such ODA would then amount to 0,7 percent of Japan's gross
domestic product (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 or 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
United States dollars over the next 10 years. However, Japan's ODA (net of debt
relief) decreased in 2007 due to a 48 percent decrease in multilateral
assistance.
* Following a decline in Japan's 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 African
Partnership Forum (APF), Japan committed to meet its ODA and TICAD IV
commitments in spite of the pending global financial crisis. Similarly, during
the first Treatment Action Campaign (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 Africa's number one export partner, followed
by the United Kingdom (UK), United States (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 Japan's most important trading
partner in Africa. Broadly speaking the trading relationship is a typical North
âSouth 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)
2004
Exports: 26 601 871
Imports: 20 942 096
Total trade: 47 543 967
Trade balance: 5 659 775
2005
Exports: 33 156 988
Imports: 23 750 596
Total trade: 56 907 584
Trade balance: 9 406 392
2006
Exports: 41 315 989
Imports: 30 261 109
Total trade: 71 577 098
Trade balance: 11 854 880
Source: Customs and Excise (RSA)
Foreign direct investment
Since 1994, there have been over 42 major investments in South Africa by
Japanese companies, amounting to more than one billion United States
dollars.
Enquiries:
Ronnie Mamoepa
Cell: 082 990 4853
Issued by: Department of Foreign Affairs
23 January 2009
