Japanese Prime Minister Kishida to Invest 6.7 Trillion Won in Africa... "Countering China's Belt and Road Initiative"

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida
Photo by Yonhap News

The Japanese government plans to invest up to $5 billion (6.706 trillion KRW) in Africa over three years starting in 2023. This decision is based on the high potential for economic growth on the African continent and also aims to counter China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) projects.

On the 23rd, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported that the Japanese government intends to invest $5 billion in Africa from 2023 to 2025. Considering that the funds invested from 2020 to 2022 amounted to $3.5 billion, this represents a significant increase. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is scheduled to attend the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD), an international conference led by the Japanese government, online on the 27th to announce this investment plan.

The Japanese government has continuously invested in African development in the past. However, the investment plan starting in 2023 is characterized by a focus on "human resource development."

Specifically, the Japanese government plans to invite young Africans to Japanese universities and companies to provide educational opportunities and support talent development in various fields such as healthcare, public health, and business. In addition to simply funding social infrastructure construction, it will also help transfer maintenance technologies to enable the upkeep and management of facilities. Furthermore, development funds for Africa will be used through yen loans via the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and cooperative financing to the African Development Bank (AFDB).

The Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported that the reason Prime Minister Kishida emphasizes human resource development in relation to African investment is largely to highlight a distinction from China. Since Japan lags behind China in terms of the scale of financial support, it aims to emphasize the direction of investment rather than the amount.

China pledged $40 billion at the China-Africa Cooperation Forum held in Senegal in 2021. This far exceeds the $20 billion in private investment announced by Japan at the 2019 Tokyo International Conference on African Development.

The Nihon Keizai Shimbun stated, "China has trapped Africa in a debt trap through large-scale loan support," and added, "To emphasize the opposing aspect of this, Prime Minister Kishida is drawing a line from China by stressing 'investment in people.'"