Abstract of DTXIV ICAL
Impact of TICAD (Tokyo International Conference on African Development) process on trends in extension of Japanese Enterprises in Africa
2022 Volume 32 Issue 3 Pages 116
Details
2022 Volume 32 Issue 3 Pages 116
Recent exploration of natural resources and rapid economic growth of Africa has been attracting enterprises in the world as a great opportunity of their business extension.
Japanese government has also put emphasis on business partnership with African countries rather than regarding as a target of development assistance of donors. The change of measure is reflected in trend of the main topics of a series of Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD), held periodically under auspice of Japanese Government. Especially at TICAD IV held in 2016 and thereafter, economic and social growth was more emphasized rather than giving aids such as relieving poverty. In addition, contribution of Japanese private sector is encouraged and a series of measures has been taken to promote Japanese enterprises to African market.
This study aims to evaluate the impact of the measures related to the recent TICAD process on the extension of business of Japanese enterprises. A set of the lists of Japanese enterprises having business on Africa published by African Development Bank External Representation Office for Asia as of 2013, 2015, 2017 and 2019 was compared and analyzed the changes by countries and business categories.
So far South Africa and Egypt were the focal points of the business of Japanese enterprises and their local branches. However, since 2017, Kenya, Morocco and Nigeria have become additional focal points, which reflects in identification of several strategic economic corridors by Japanese government at TICAD VI.
Concerning the trends of business categories, extension of business of manufacturing enterprises, especially automobile related ones has been rapidly growing. Business of trading firms and financial services has been also growing rapidly in recent two years. Interestingly, Japanese used car trading shows unique trend of extension, starting from Zambia and surrounding countries and expanding to Southern and Eastern countries. On the other hand, construction business has been shrunk due to high competition with China.
