Museveni in Kenya for Japan-African conference

KAMPALA.

President Museveni is in Kenya to attend the sixth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD).
The two day summit, which kicks off today (Saturday) at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre in Nairobi, is the first to be held on the continent, since TICAD’s inception in 1993.

The summit, which draws, among others, African and Asian heads of state and government, representatives of development agencies, regional and international organisations, is held with the objective of having high-level policy dialogue between African leaders and development partners where Japan is always playing the role of co-hosting.

President Museveni, arrived in Nairobi at the at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport yesterday (Friday) morning where he was received by Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary, Dr Cleopa Mailu and Uganda’s High Commissioner to Kenya, Angelina Wapakhabulo.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is expected to open the summit which will close on Monday.

The decision to host the next TICAD meeting in Africa was reached in 2013 when it was agreed that the venue of subsequent summits be alternated between Japan and Africa. The interval of summit meetings was also shortened from every five years to three years.

High on the agenda at the summit will be a follow-up on the progress made on key areas that were pointed out in the last conference in 2013, mainly infrastructure development, economic growth, peace and security in Africa and agricultural modernisation in line with implementation of recently adopted UN Sustainable Development Goals and Africa’s Agenda 2063.

Other co-organisers of TICAD are the United Nations Office of the Special Adviser on Africa and United Nations Development Programme.
The summit is expected to conclude with leaders signing the Nairobi Declaration, in which they will commit to the developmental agenda of the summit.

The conference is also a key avenue for Japan, the world’s third largest developed economy, to bridging the gap with Africa which is expected to be the next frontier of investment. Japan’s main economic rivals, the US, China, India and the European Union also have similar summits to court Africa.

Last year, Japan’s total trade volumes with Africa of $24 billion were overshadowed by China’s $179 billion, a resource hungry giant, which has also spent an estimated $75b on aid and development projects in Africa between 2000 and 2011.

The numbers
Shs81 trillion
Amount in Shs of Japan’s trade volumes with Africa, comparing with China’s which is at Shs604 trillion