Singapore's "Straits Times" published an article on September 2 saying that experts believe that Japan and China have ample room for cooperation in Africa.
The most important summit between Japan and Africa, the Tokyo International Conference on African Development, concluded on August 30, and the leaders of the African continent announced for the first time that they had "taken note" of the "Free and Open Indo-Pacific Vision" proposed by the host country, the article said.
In the 13-page statement, the tentative statement of "noticing" – as opposed to the more forceful term "support" – underscores Japan's significant loss in the race for strategic influence in Africa.
The article notes that more than 3,700 Chinese companies already operate in Africa. Africa's population is expected to double to 2.5 billion by 2050. Today, there are 300 million middle-class people in Africa. Japanese companies have opened 800 offices on the African continent alone.
Apart from expressing the hope that the total amount of Japan's investment in Africa over the next three years will exceed the US$25.6 billion that Japan has already invested since the Sixth Tokyo International Conference on African Development,** no specific investment targets have been committed. However, he did set a goal of training 3,000 people for Africa over the next six years to meet the needs of business between Japan and Africa.
According to the article, 53 African countries participated in the three-day summit held in Yokohama. Japan's propaganda rhetoric uses terms such as "quality infrastructure" and "technology transfer" many times. Takeshi Daimon, a former economist at the World Bank, said the propaganda language was largely to the point. "Twenty years ago, China lagged behind Japan in almost everything in terms of technology," he said. But since then, this huge gap has narrowed. As far as the railway system is concerned, in terms of technology or speed, the recipient countries do not actually see a huge difference between China and Japan. China has mastered all the technology that Japan is capable of providing. ”
He is not particularly worried about Chinese investment in Africa. He pointed out that China's investment agreements have begun to focus on debt sustainability. The article notes that this opinion was also expressed by the President of the African Development Bank, Akinwenmi Adesina in an interview with Reuters. "China has no intention of making any country indebted," he said. China is fulfilling a very important role, that is, in infrastructure. Africa is not in a debt crisis. ”
Japan is restoring its global influence through initiatives such as the Free and Open Indo-Pacific Vision, and experts believe that Japan and China have ample room to cooperate rather than compete with each other, the article said.
Han Yiguang, a political scientist at the University of Tokyo, said that Africa is also a fertile ground for Sino-Japanese cooperation. "The difficulty is to work out the specifics, such as legal and financial issues," he said. However, from a political point of view, there is an opportunity, because both Japan and China are eager to maintain the development of their relationship. ”
Takeshi Daimon pointed to the overlap in the types of infrastructure projects tendered by China and Japan, such as railways, roads, and ports and airports. Today, Africa has a financing gap of $108 billion a year. He proposed a co-financing scheme as a form of cooperation.
The Kenya China Economic Association released a report on August 27 that in 2018, the association's Chinese-funded enterprises created more than 50,000 jobs for local people, with a 96% employee localization rate and more than $75 million invested in social responsibility. The picture shows the scene of the press conference. (Photo by Lu Shuai).