By Yoko Nishikawa
YOKOHAMA, Japan (Reuters) - Japan unveiled a package ofsteps to help boost growth in Africa on Wednesday, vowing todouble its aid and business investment, as it seeks closer tieswith the resource-rich continent.
In an opening speech at the Tokyo International Conferenceon African Development (TICAD), to which Japan has attractedmore than 40 African heads of state, Prime Minister YasuoFukuda also said Japan would set up a new $2.5 billion (1.3billion pounds) fund to help Japanese firms invest more inAfrica.
"If I were to liken the history of African development to avolume of literature, then what we are about to do now is opena new page entitled the 'Century of African Growth'," Fukudasaid, adding that developing transportation infrastructure waskey to boosting growth there.
The three-day conference in Yokohama, near Tokyo, is alitmus test for Japan's efforts to help Africa as it seeks moremineral resources from the continent.
Japan also hopes to win support for its long-standing bidfor a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council -- a topicthat Fukuda repeatedly mentioned in bilateral meetings withAfrican leaders on the sidelines of the conference.
Some 2,500 participants, representing 52 African nationsand including delegates from international agencies andactivists such as Irish rock star Bono, have gathered at TICADas Africa faces new challenges of soaring food and energyprices, which have led to riots in some countries.
This is the fourth TICAD conference, which has been heldevery five years since 1993, yet Japan has lagged behind rivalsChina and India in accessing Africa's rich bounty of metals andoil. Japan's trade with Africa is a meagre 2 percent of itsoverall trade.
"Africa has come to Japan with high expectations," saidTanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, who is also head of theAfrican Union. "Those expectations revolve around the successof this summit in setting a solid base for a new, more dynamicrelationship between Africa and Japan."
For Africa, closer ties with Japan means not only gettingmore aid and investment from the world's second-largest economybut also getting its voice heard on the international stage,especially since Japan chairs the Group of Eight meetings ofrich nations this year, including a leaders' summit in July.
Fukuda vowed to double Japan's development assistance toAfrica over the next five years, bringing its five-year averageannual development assistance to $1.8 billion by 2012 from thecurrent $900 million.
Aid experts and activists worry that donor countries mayfail to meet their promise made at the Gleneagles G8 summit in2005, which included raising aid to developing countries by $50billion per year by 2010, half of which is for Africa.
Japan slipped to fifth place from third in overall overseasaid spending in 2007 at $7.7 billion, down 30 percent from theprevious year, according to OECD figures, as Tokyo tried tocurb the country's bulging public debt.
"We think that the world is really watching Japan,"anti-poverty advocate Bono said on Tuesday. "At this year's G8summit, we get to find out if a new Japan is coming."
WANTED: INVESTMENT AND TRADE
Delegates at TICAD hope to go beyond just aid.
"There are two important areas that need urgent attentionwhich can help reinvigorate our relationship, and these aretrade and investment," said Botswana's vice president, MompatiMerafhe.
"While we recognise Japan's recent efforts to improve traderelations with Africa, a lot still needs to be done."
To foster Japanese businesses in Africa, Fukuda said Japanwould dispatch a large-scale economic mission, comprisingleaders from the public and private sector, later this year.
As part of Japan's pledge to double investment in Africa,Fukuda announced a $2.5 billion scheme that will directlyfinance businesses in Africa and guarantee the financingprovided by Japanese banks for businesses there.
Fukuda also stressed the need for a network of roads inAfrica, vowing to give up to $4 billion of yen loans to thecontinent over the next five years to improve itsinfrastructure.
Besides talking about how to boost growth in Africa,delegates also stressed the need to meet the U.N. MillenniumDevelopment Goals, a set of eight globally agreed targets to bereached by 2015.
As this year marks the halfway point to achieve the goals,which include halving the number of people living in poverty onless than $1 a day and providing universal primary education,concerns are growing that most countries may fail to meet them.
(Additional reporting by Yoko Kubota; Editing by HughLawson)
