Message from the Prime Minister of Japan
H.E. Mr. Yasuo Fukuda
on the occasion of the 11th Session of the Assembly of the African Union
June 30, 2008
Your Excellency, Mr. Jakaya Kikwete, African Union Chairperson and President of the Republic of Tanzania,
Your Excellency, Mr. Jean Ping, Chairperson of the Commission of the African Union,
Your Excellency, Mr. Mohammed Hosny Mubarak President of the Arab Republic of Egypt,
Excellencies, Distinguished representatives from the Member States of the African Union.
I would like to extend my heartfelt congratulation on the occasion of the 11th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union, and also to express my gratitude for the participation of many leaders to the fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD IV) once again.
Africa, while having faced numerous challenges, has made steady progress in its development. Today, at the time of the 11th AU Assembly, Africa's annual GDP growth rate has surpassed 6% and Africa is surely stepping into the "Century of African Growth".
This progress is triggered by various changes in Africa; the ownership of African people and government to its own transformation, as well as the strengthened partnership of international community, has played pivotal role. Changes can bring about hopes and opportunities; nevertheless, it also causes instability at times. In order to get through bright but uncertain period and to achieve sustainable growth, Africa needs to address challenges that it has been facing.
Against this background, we had energetic discussions on the future direction of African development, under the basic message of "Toward a vibrant Africa -the continent of hope and opportunity", in TICAD IV, with focus on boosting economic growth, ensuring human security and tackling environment and climate change issues.
To share the fruit of development, as well as to realize sustainable and stable development, efforts to accomplish the MDGs such as water and education are indispensable. From this point of view, it is indeed timely that the 11th AU General Assembly addresses the issue of "Water and sanitation". At TICAD IV, Japan also announced numerous concrete programs to help African countries achieve the MDGs including a program to dispatch the "W-SAT (Water Security Action Team) for water resource development and management.
Moreover, for further robust growth, Africa needs to achieve self-sustaining development by encouraging private investment. To this end, Japan provided up to 4 billion US dollars of soft loans to Africa. Japan will shortly send a joint mission comprised of leaders in the public and private sectors. Besides, peace and stability is fundamental to development. As a Peace Fostering Nation, Japan will make considerable efforts in this arena.
Both Africa and the United Nations equally need a change. The United Nations Security Council, which was created immediately after World War II, must be reformed through the expansion of both permanent and non-permanent seats in order to reflect the reality of the 21st century. Since this spring there have been active discussions in New York regarding the launch of intergovernmental negotiations on the reform of the Security Council. Many countries including African states have been participating in these discussions and the momentum for the reform is steadily increasing. We cannot miss this opportunity and I hope that a strong message to support the commencement of the negotiations to achieve speedy progress in the Security Council reform will be delivered at this meeting of the African Union.
At the G8 Toyako/Hokkaido Summit to be held by Japan on July 7, development and Africa is to be one of the major items. Japan will further facilitate discussions on this matter by reflecting the discussions at the outreach session prior to the G8 summit and these of TICAD IV.
Lastly, I would like to wish the success of this Assembly and the continued good health and success of all delegates.
Yasuo Fukuda
Prime Minister of Japan
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