JAPAN: African Development Bank President Donald Kaberuka calls for more Japanese investment

Record ID: 465162

  • Title: JAPAN: African Development Bank President Donald Kaberuka calls for more Japanese investment
  • Date: 5th April 2010
  • Summary: TOKYO, JAPAN (APRIL 5, 2010) (REUTERS) DONALD KABERUKA, PRESIDENT OF THE AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK, STANDING ON PODIUM FOR SPEECH JOURNALIST LISTENING TO KABERUKA (SOUNDBITE) (English) DONALD KABERUKA, PRESIDENT OF THE AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK, SAYING: "I'm not here to look for aid because I know each time an African leader is visiting a foreign country, people conclude immediately that he's there to look for aid. I'm here to look for investment and to look for partnership." PHOTOGRAPHERS AFRICAN DELEGATES SEATED AT THE CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (English) DONALD KABERUKA, PRESIDENT OF THE AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK, SAYING: "The recovery of the African continent began in 2001 and is continuing now because we think this year the minimum the economy will do on average is about five and half percent. And we think next year it will be six to seven percent." JOURNALIST TAKING NOTES (SOUNDBITE) (English) DONALD KABERUKA, PRESIDENT OF THE AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK, SAYING: "The growing of a middle class in Africa has lead to an explosion in the demand for infrastructure and for services and these are what companies from Malaysia, from Singapore, from India and from Brazil are providing." AUDIENCE APPLAUDING KABERUKA AT THE END OF THE NEWS CONFERENCE
  • Embargoed: 20th April 2010 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Japan
  • Country: Japan
  • Topics: International Relations,Economic News
  • Reuters ID: LVA66CTR0CCANA8D81NVHP5RJEJF
  • Story Text: The President of the African Development Bank, Donald Kaberuka, calls for more investments in Africa from Japanese companies.
    The President of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Donald Kaberuka called on Monday (April 5) for more yen investment from Japanese companies into the world's poorest continent, where he said the economy was expected to grow more than 5 percent this year.
    "I'm not here to look for aid. Because I know each time an African leader is visiting a foreign country, people conclude immediately that he's there to look for aid. I'm here to look for investment and to look for partnership," Kaberuka told journalists at the Foreign Press Club in Tokyo.
    Kaberuka has started his five-day visit to Japan from Osaka, the country's industrial hub, holding a seminar on investment opportunities for business leaders before he came to Tokyo for a more political approach to bring money and interest to African countries.
    Kaberuka was scheduled to meet Japan's senior government officials from foreign, finance and trade ministries as well as Japan International Cooperation Agency's (JICA) President Sadako Ogata in a bid to drive more contribution from the world's second largest economy to the bank's operational fund, which he said was currently about 32 billion U.S. dollars.
    Japan is the second largest contributor to the AfDB after the United States.
    Kaberuka was confident Africa's economic growth would revive this year and accelerate in 2011, after the recession hit commodity prices hard.
    "The recovery of the African continent began in 2001 and is continuing now because we think this year the minimum the economy will do on average is about five and half percent. And we think next year it will be six to seven percent," said Kaberuka.
    Africa, heavily dependent on minerals and commodity exports for revenue, surprised economists by weathering the global economic crisis better than the West.
    Top African economy South Africa -- which exited its first recession in 17 years last December -- together with Nigeria and Kenya, is expected to help spur Africa's recovery on the back of improved global demand.
    Kaberuka said he believed the growth was sustainable, partly due to the strong demand from Africa's blossoming middle class.
    "The growing of a middle class in Africa has lead to an explosion in the demand for infrastructure and for services and these are what companies from Malaysia, from Singapore, from India and from Brazil are providing," said Kaberuka.
    Kaberuka, former finance minister in Rwanda and principal architect of the successful post-war reconstruction and economic reform in the country, became the head of development drive of the continent in September 2005.
    The AfDB, whose shareholders include Africa's 53 nations and 24 non-African donor countries, will lend about $10 billion to African governments and companies this year. Much of its lending to poorer countries is at concessionary rates, largely financed by Western donors.
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