In an opening speech at the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD), Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said Japan would double its foreign aid and business investments to the African continent.

“As part of Japan’s pledge to double investment in Africa, Fukuda announced a $2.5 billion scheme that will directly finance businesses in Africa and guarantee the financing provided by Japanese banks for businesses there.

Fukuda also stressed the need for a network of roads in Africa, vowing to give up to $4 billion of yen loans to the continent over the next five years to improve its infrastructure.”

Read the full Reuters’ piece here.

-Virginia Simmons

Yesterday, World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick released a statement about Japanese Prime Minister Fukuda’s call to put the world hunger crisis on the agenda for the July G8 meeting.

“I welcome Prime Minister Fukuda’s intention to put the food crisis firmly on the agenda of the G8 summit in Japan in July, and his request that the World Bank, the United Nations, and other international institutions coordinate closely to prepare joint action. We will be pleased to support Japan as chair of the G8…

Donors must act now to support the World Food Program’s call for emergency funds to fill what is an urgent financing gap. Without this money, millions will go hungry. For them, the international system will have failed.

It will be important that as an international community we coordinate closely, minimize overlap and attack the issue from a variety of different fronts to ensure support reaches where it is needed most, and that longer-term supply issues can be fully addressed.

These short, medium and long-term issues will be a critical part of international action. But let us first raise the money to meet the most immediate needs. The world can afford this. The poor and hungry cannot.”

Read the full release on the World Banks site.

-Virginia Simmons
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Japan’s Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, who is chairing this year’s G8 meeting, wrote a letter to the heads of the G8 countries as well as United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and World Bank Group President Robert Zoellick stating that the soaring world food prices would be part of this year’s agenda.

You can read an outline of the letter.

It was copied to the World Food Programme Executive Director Josette Sheeran, Food and Agriculture Organization Director-General Jacques Diouf, International Fund for Agricultural Development President Lennart Bage, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn, and Chairperson of the Commission of the African Union Alpha Oumar Konare.

In the letter, Prime Minister Fukuda states:

“Soaring food prices are posing imminent and serious global challenges. Threat of hunger and malnutrition is increasing, and the high prices have also brought about social unrest.

As the Chair of the G8, I firmly believe that this issue must be a subject of our in-depth discussions with a strong sense of urgency at the Hokkaido Toyako Summit in July. I intend to consult with my G8 colleagues, so that the G8 could collectively send a robust message.

You can read the full outline of the letter here, and more about the world crisis here.

-Virginia Simmons