FOCUS: Risk Reduction Key to Boosting Japanese Investment in Africa

   By Kei Inooka
   Yokohama, Aug. 22 (Jiji Press)--Reducing business risks in Africa appears to be key for Japan to shift its focus from assistance to investment in African nations at a time when China and Russia are trying to increase their presence in the continent.
   At the Ninth Tokyo International Conference on African Development, or TICAD 9, which ended Friday, Japan promised to help African states develop 300,000 workers in cooperation with Japanese firms and to urge its companies to make investments and expand into the continent.
   At the three-day conference discussing ways to support African states, Japan also decided to set up a framework to allow the Japan International Cooperation Agency to provide loans for private funds considering investments in businesses offering uncertainty but also possible high proceeds.
   "The Japanese government has long wanted more Japanese firms to enter and develop African markets in a bid to make full use of its official development aid from the beginning of the conference," which started in 1993, Sadaharu Kataoka, an expert in Japan-African relations at Waseda University, explained.

(2025/08/22-22:20)