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As Abe Plans More Japanese Investment in Africa, China Discusses Higher-Quality Investment There

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EIRNS —Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will be attending the two-day (Aug 27-28) Sixth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) in Nairobi, and will meet with dozens of leaders from across Africa, including Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and South Africa’s Jacob Zuma. The forum was first convened in 1993, but at Africa’s request, this is the first time that the forum will be held in Africa, Japan Today reports today.

According to a report in "The East African" today, "Tokyo will also be hoping to strike several trade deals with mineral-producing countries, as it relies on Africa’s mineral imports for the metals it needs in car manufacturing. Japan is one of the world’s biggest producers of automotive and electronic products." The article cites Bloomberg as saying that "the Japanese companies accounted for more than $7 billion investment in Africa compared with China’s $20 billion. Africa is becoming a lucrative investment destination for Asia’s leading economies, primarily China, India and Japan."

Meanwhile, another article, "China’s Africa Investment Shifts from Quantity to Quality," penned by Yu Ning and carried by the Global Times, says dollar figures for China’s investment are waning in Africa. This waning, Yu Ning writes, "is a sign that China is changing its approach, with more attention paid to quality rather than quantity. Chinese investment in natural resources in Africa is waning. Instead of eyeing mega-infrastructure projects for short-term gains as it did in the past, China now attaches more importance to expanding investment in the manufacturing industry."

Yu said China is "drawing lessons from incidents in which political and social instability muddied operating environments for Chinese overseas investments," and therefore, it is now "actively exploring investment opportunities in countries with stable politics such as Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Senegal." The new approach offers preferential policies and support for more Chinese manufacturing enterprises to invest in Africa through the China-Africa Development Fund. These investment patterns better conform to the demands of industrialization in African countries."