[17100508]
North-West University
Mafikeng
11 October 2005
Ambassador Toshinori Shigeie
On the 11th of October 2005, students at the North-West University’s Mafikeng Campus had the opportunity to attend a speech delivered by Mr. Toshinori Shigeie, Ambassador of Japan.
The topic of Mr. Shigeie’s speech was Japan and Africa: Cooperation and Challenges.
This topic is of great relevance due to the fact that Japan has been actively promoting African development for more than a decade using the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) as its cornerstone. Japan will host TICAD IV in 2008.
As testimony to its commitment to Africa, Japan pronounced 2005 as the "Year of Africa" in order to raise awareness amongst the international community about African issues.
Japan’s Overseas Development Assistance (ODA), of which South Africa is a recipient, puts high priority on poverty reduction. At the Asia-Africa Summit in Indonesia in April 2005, Japan announced that it will double its ODA to Africa within the next three years. Japan is committed to enhancing its assistance to Africa.
The speech was delivered at 15h30 in the Senate Suite of the Administration Building and was followed by a question and answer session in which students could address Mr. Shigeie directly.