The First Meeting of the Commission on Promotion of Public-Private Cooperation for TICAD and the Japan-Africa Exchange Year

December 7, 2007

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will hold the first meeting of the Commission on Promotion of Public-Private Cooperation for TICAD and the Japan-Africa Exchange Year on December 7 (Fri) in Tokyo. The meeting will be hosted by Mr. Masahiko Koumura, Minister for Foreign Affairs.

The Commission on Promotion of Public-Private Cooperation for TICAD and the Japan-Africa Exchange Year was established to share between the public and private sectors their recognition of the present situation of Africa, where there exist many unsolved issues such as poverty and development. By doing so, this commission addresses those issues as an All-Japan team working toward the TICAD IV (Fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development), which will be hosted by Japan in 2008.

Representatives of governments and private companies will gather at the meeting to discuss such issues as improvement of the environment for expansion of trade with and investment in African countries, and Official Development Assistance (ODA).

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