japan enters the game for africa’s resources

http://blogs.blouinnews.com/blouinbeatbusiness/2014/01/09/japan-enters-the-game-for-africas-resources/

Japan enters the game for Africa’s resources
January 9, 2014 by Alex Erquicia in Africa, Asia-Pacific

Africa looks to be a new economic arena for Japan’s rivalry with China. But Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is seeking more than that from the continent. One of his missions is to raise Japan’s global profile, and he has set his eyes on sub-Saharan Africa as a starting point: from January 10-14 Abe will travel to Ivory Coast, Mozambique and Ethiopia where he is expected to seal several commercial and energy deals. (Read more: The future of Africa’s natural resources).

The voyage is the first such visit by a Japanese P.M. since former Junichiro Koizumi travelled to Ethiopia and Ghana in 2006. (Abe visited Egypt in 2007 during his first stint in office). His reception in all three countries is likely to be positive, especially if he confirms the $14 billion in aid and trade deals that many expect. Abe’s plan is to represent and support Japanese companies interested in investing in African natural resources, in order to secure the energy flow (and security) of his country, as well as to develop infrastructure projects. Executives from more than 20 companies and other businessmen will join Japan’s Prime Minister on his tour.

He will try to differentiate Japan from its regional rival by promoting the recovering economy back home and presenting his package of reforms, Abenomics, as he has been doing in the countries he has visited so far. (Abe dubbed himself Japan’s “top salesman” in May.) The region will play a key part in this economic strategy, a major prop of which is to triple infrastructure exports and double farm exports by 2020. The significant economic progress he has made in overcoming almost two decades of deflation gives him strong credentials.

The P.M. started laying the groundwork for this trip in June, when he hosted the Fifth Tokyo International Conference on African Development, where he held bilateral meetings with most of the nearly 40 African heads-of-state. Japan said at the time that it would assist Africa with $32 billion in the next five years, the first part of it probably being the $14 billion focused on trade and investment deals.

Abe sees Africa as “a frontier for Japan’s diplomacy” and – perhaps more importantly – a market where it can sell its cars, power plants and generators. The long game here, and the far more difficult one, is to track and exceed China’s inroads in the region: China has become Africa’s largest trade partner, and Africa is now its largest import source. The deals Abe will try to ink are a first step towards that. He has a long way to go, however. In Ethiopia, he’s scheduled to give a speech at the African Union’s headquarters – which were paid for and constructed by China.