TICAD-sponsored Public Forum & TV Debate on Trade and Investment between Asia and Africa

New York, 28 November, 2005 - Leading representatives of the Tokyo International Conference for African Development (TICAD) and multilateral agencies along with corporate executives from Asia and Africa will gather in Paris today and tomorrow in the framework of a public forum and a TV debate to examine the potential for expanding trade and investment between Asia and Africa.

“The timing of this multi-faceted event is highly significant,” said Bouna Sémou Diouf, Director of the TICAD/UNDP Africa Bureau and senior Advisor to the Assistant Administrator and Director of UNDP’s Regional Bureau for Africa. “It is being held in the aftermath of the 2005 World Summit during which world leaders agreed to take action on a range of global challenges, including trade liberalization, and prior to the forthcoming high-profile World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong.”

The two-day public forum, the result of months of preparation, will examine trade, investment and cooperation between Asia and Africa and discuss ways and means to sensitize the general public in Africa on the TICAD Initiative. It is organized by the TICAD/UNDP Africa Bureau and the Club Millennium, a Paris-based think-tank on African development whose activities are published through Africa International, a leading international newsmagazine.

Since its inception in 1993, the TICAD Initiative has evolved into a major global framework to facilitate the implementation of initiatives for promoting African development. Trade between Asia and Africa has grown dramatically, although it is still small compared to Asia's overall levels of trade.

According to the World Bank, a TICAD co-organizer, African exports to Asia are still small but grew significantly during the past 12 years. Of the total export earnings estimated at about US$134 billion per year (2001–2003 average), 15 percent come from sales to Asia. The rate of increase in export values to Asia -- about 10 percent per year -- has been higher than the comparable rates for the European Union or the United States.

In addition to the senior-level participation by the TICAD/UNDP Africa Bureau, speakers will include Anicet Dologuele, President of the Banque de Développement des États de l’Afrique Centrale; Marie Gosset, Ambassador of Côte d’Ivoire to the Kingdom of Belgium and accredited to ACP and EU; Hiroshi Hirabayashi, Ambassador of Japan to France; Maggie Kigozi, Executive Director of the Uganda Investment Authority; Elson Ng K, President & CEO of the Singapore-based GMG Global Ltd.; Alizetta Ouédraogo, Chair and CEO of Tanz Aliz in Burkina Faso; Elizabeth Tankeu, Commissioner for Trade and Industry of the African Union Commission; Alhaji BamangaTukur, Chairman of the NEPAD Business Group; and Toshinao Urabe, Minister, Embassy of Japan to France.

This public forum is one of the first vital strides toward ensuring wider dissemination of the TICAD Initiative, which has spurred a wave of innovative programmes in consolidation of peace, human-centered development, and poverty reduction through economic growth for the past twelve years.