Japan plans to double Africa aid, win support

from Reuters Africa

TOKYO, Japan plans to double annual foreign aid to Africa by 2012, the government said on Tuesday, to strengthen ties with the resource-rich continent and win support for its bid for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council.

Japan, which is preparing to host the fourth round of the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) on May 28-30, faces rising competition from China and India for Africa's natural resources such as rare metals.

Tokyo aims to raise its annual aid to African nations to 200 billion yen ($1.9 billion) by 2012, double the amount for 2007, Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura told a news conference. That includes yen loans and grant aids but not debt relief, an official at the foreign ministry said.

Machimura said the aid was needed to help Africa address problems such as poverty and disease.

"In addition, Japan has been saying that it wants to win a permanent seat in the Security Council and would like to build a closer relationship with Africa in that sense," he said, adding that import-dependent Japan also hoped to work closely with African countries in the area of scarce resources.

Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda will announce details of the aid at the Tokyo conference to be attended by leaders and representatives from 52 African nations, members of international organisations, and activist Irish rock star Bono.

Japan's foreign aid grew from the late 1970s as it strengthened ties with resource-rich developing countries and sought to boost its global profile to match its economic power.

But efforts to curb the country's bulging public debt resulted in Japan slipping to fifth place from third in overall overseas aid spending in 2007 at $7.7 billion, down 30 percent from the previous year, according to Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development figures.