Pretoria - International Relations and Cooperation Deputy Minister, Marius Fransman, will lead a South African delegation to the Fifth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD-V) scheduled for this weekend in Addis Ababa, 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.
A statement issued by the Department of International Relations and Cooperation said over the past 20 years, this partnership has evolved into a “strategic multilateral platform” that has aligned its priorities to the African Union/New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) development objectives for Africa.
“In this regard, South Africa is of the view that TICAD-V meetings will provide a platform for frank discussions between Japan, African governments… The TICAD III Summit of 2003 made a clear commitment to supporting Nepad as the AU strategic framework for pan-African socio-economic development.”
The department said in its 20 years of existence, the TICAD Process has succeeded in mobilising and sustaining international focus on the need to support the African Agenda and increase the quality of trade with Africa.
In 2011, trade between Japan and Africa stood at US$30.4 billion, with a notable increase in cooperation in the areas of human resource development, infrastructure development, science and technology. – SAnews.gov.za
