International Partnership in Science and Technology for Economic Development: Africa and Japan

The SASTeC Workshop

28 February 2006 Tokyo, Japan

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Contents

The Southern African Science and Technology Community (SASTeC) ................3 1. Introduction............................................................................................................3 2. Objectives ..............................................................................................................3 3. Governance ............................................................................................................4

Programme ...................................................................................................................5

Highlights of the Workshop ........................................................................................6

Mr. Vuyani Lingela, Counsellor: Science and Technology, South African Embassy � Programme Director ................................................................................8

H.E. Mr. Oscar Motswagae, Ambassador of Botswana � Welcoming Address........9 H.E. Mr. Roosevelt Gondwe, Ambassador of Malawi � Introduction ....................11 Mr. Kaname Nakano, Director General, JBIC � Working Models for Cooperation between Africa and Japan ........................................................................................12 Mr. Wataru Nishigahiro, Director-General: Science Council of Japan, Cabinet Office � Strategic Partnership in Science and Technology for Economic Development: Opportunities for Africa and Japan ..................................................18 H.E. Mr. Yoichi Otabe, Ministry of Foreign Affairs � Japan and SADC ...............23 Mr. Dhesigen Naidoo, Deputy Director-General, Department of Science and Technology � Partnership for Development: Opportunities for Africa and Japan ..26

H.E. Mr. Godfrey Simasiku, Ambassador of Zambia � Discussion Session.........36 H.E. Mr. Oscar Motswagae, Ambassador of Botswana...........................................38 H.E. Mr. Yoichi Otabe, Director-General, Ministry of Foreign Affairs..................39 H.E. Dr. Ben Ngubane, Ambassador of South Africa .............................................42 Mr. Yoshihiro Nakamura, Executive Director, Japan International Labour Foundation (Former Ambassador of Japan to Zambia) ...........................................43 Mr. Naonobu Minato, Acting Director, IDRI, FASID ............................................44 H.E. Mr. Stuart Comberback, Ambassador of Zimbabwe.......................................45 H.E. Mr. Jean Christian Obame, Ambassador of Gabon .........................................46 H.E. Mr. Atsushi Hatakenaka, Senior Vice-President, JICA...................................48 H.E. Mr. Yoichi Otabe, Ministry of Foreign Affairs ...............................................51 H.E. Dr. Ben Ngubane, Ambassador of South Africa .............................................53 H.E. Mr. Jean Christian Obame, Ambassador of Gabon .........................................54 H.E. Mr. Oscar Motswagae, Ambassador of Botswana...........................................55 H.E. Mr. Stuart Comberback, Ambassador of Zimbabwe.......................................57

H.E. Mr. Daniel Antonio, Ambassador of Mozambique � Question & Answer ..59 H.E. Dr. Ben Ngubane, Ambassador of South Africa .............................................59 Mr. Dhesigen Naidoo, Deputy Director-General, Department of Science and Technology ..............................................................................................................59 H.E. Mr. Oscar Motswagae, Ambassador of Botswana...........................................61 H.E. Dr. Ben Ngubane, Ambassador of South Africa .............................................61 Mr. Koichi Hagiwara, Industrial Development Officer, UNIDO ............................62

H.E. Mr. Stuart Comberback, Ambassador of Zimbabwe � Closing Remarks...63

Contact Information: SASTeC Secretariat .............................................................68

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The Southern African Science and Technology Community (SASTeC) 1. Introduction The first African Ministerial Conference on Science and Technology held in South Africa in November 2003 adopted an Outline of a Plan of Action for Science and Technology. This Plan of Action contains 12 flagship programme areas and specific policy issues which include the following: biodiversity; biotechnology; information and communications technology; energy technologies; materials science; space science and technologies; post harvest food technologies; water sciences and technology; indigenous knowledge and technologies; desertification research; science and technology for manufacturing; and laser technology. The Ministerial Conference stressed that it is a priority for all African countries to have comprehensive national science, technology and innovation policies with emphasis on the development of effective National Systems of Innovation. The Action Plan recommended all programmes of New Partnership for Africa�s Development (NEPAD) to ensure that S&T are integral inputs in their conceptualisation and implementation in order to accelerate progress along the pathways for the realisation of Africa�s goals: job and wealth creation, poverty reduction and environmental sustainability. The 2nd AU/NEPAD Ministerial Conference on Science and Technology adopted the Africa�s Science and Technology Consolidated Plan of Action in Senegal in September 2005. This Plan of Action consolidates science and technology programmes of the African Union (AU) Commission and the NEPAD. It articulates Africa�s common objectives and commitment to collective actions to develop and use science and technology for the socio-economic transformation of the continent and its integration into the world economy. It is erected on three interrelated conceptual pillars. These are capacity building, knowledge production, and technological innovation. This Plan of Action complements a series of other AU and NEPAD programmes for such areas as agriculture, environment, infrastructure, industrialization and education. 2. Objectives Recalling the commitment of the Government of Japan, expressed by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi where he said on 14 May 2003: �Now that NEPAD is in place, Japan's basic policy on cooperation with Africa will be to support NEPAD through the TICAD process, and to expand partnership for that purpose.� The SADC Committee of Ambassadors in Japan established the Southern African Science and Technology Community (SASTeC) on 31 January 2006 to fulfill the following objectives.

(a) To increase flows of scientific knowledge and resources to Africa through participation in joint programmes with Japan.

(b) To facilitate the participation of Africa as a significant player in the

international science and technology arena.

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(c) To facilitate partnership in science and technology between African countries

and Japan. 3. Governance SASTeC is composed of representatives of the Embassies of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) member countries in Japan. The Member States include Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Figure 1. Governance Structure of SASTeC

The Science and Technology Office, South African Embassy will serve as the SASTeC Secretariat and assume the following responsibilities in consultation with the SADC Committee of Senior Officials and the SADC Committee of Ambassadors.

(a) Organise events to enhance Africa�s S&T network in Japan (b) Draft and distribute papers to members and stakeholders for meetings in

Japan (c) Conduct research and distribute results to members and stakeholders to

advance the Africa�s Science and Technology Consolidated Plan of Action in Japan

African Union

NEPAD

SADC Secretariat

S&T Sector

IGAD

NEPAD Secretariat

SASTeC

SADC Committee of Ambassadors

SADC Committee of Senior Officials

EACSADCECOWAS ECCAS

Foreign Missions in Japan

Other Sectors S&TInfrastructureAgriculture Environment Others

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Event: SASTeC Workshop on International Partnership in Science and Technology for Economic Development: Africa and Japan

Date: 10h00 � 16h00, Tuesday, 28 February 2006 Place: Matsuya Saloon, 414 Zenkyoren Building, 2-7-9 Hirakawa-cho,

Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan, Tel: 03-3265-3201 Language: English and Japanese (simultaneous interpretation) Sponsor: South African Embassy in Japan Programme 10h05-10h10 Welcoming Address � H.E. Mr. Oscar Motswagae, Ambassador of

Botswana 10h10-10h15 Introduction � H.E. Mr. Roosevelt Gondwe, Ambassador of Malawi 10h15-10h40 Keynote Address � Mr. Kaname Nakano, Director General,

Development Assistance Department IV, Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) Working Models for Cooperation between Africa and Japan

10h40-11h00 Mr. Wataru Nishigahiro, Director-General: Science Council of Japan,

Cabinet Office, Japan Strategic Partnership in Science and Technology for Economic Development: Opportunities for Africa and Japan

11h00-11h15 Tea Break 11h15-11h35 H.E. Mr. Yoichi Otabe, Director-General, Ministry of Foreign

Affairs: Sub-Saharan African Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan Japan and SADC

11h35-12h00 Mr. Dhesigen Naidoo, Deputy Director-General: International

Cooperation and Resources, Department of Science and Technology, South Africa

Partnership for Development: Opportunities for Africa and Japan 12h00-13h30 Lunch 13h30-14h45 Discussion Session, Moderator � H.E. Mr. Godfrey Simasiku,

Ambassador of Zambia Sustainable Framework for Science and Technology Partnership between Africa and Japan

14h45-15h00 Tea Break 15h00-15h55 Question and Answer Session, Moderator � H.E. Mr. Daniel Antonio,

Ambassador of Mozambique 15h55-16h00 Closing Remarks � H.E. Mr. Stuart Comberbach, Ambassador of

Zimbabwe

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Highlights of the Workshop ��when I have interviews with Ambassadors or officials from various countries, they say, �Why Japanese companies cannot come to our countries more in order to make foreign direct investments.� Mr. Kaname Nakano �..the topic of the day is how to make use of science and technology for the use of development and I think the concept of the role of science and technology for the purpose of development is still a new thing.� Mr. Wataru Nishigahiro ��quite often in developing countries, we have witnessed the case where the protection of individual property rights is insufficient. That would undermine the willingness of foreign investors to start business and that will, in turn, hinder the possible transfer of technology. I know and I have heard the limit of the capacity of most of the developing countries including the countries in Africa to establish the appropriate system of the protection of individual property rights, but should it be the case, together with the donor community we are prepared to extend our cooperation.� H.E. Mr. Yoichi Otabe ��by the time you reach to Japan, you�re completely green with envy because it�s telling you that people in that part of the world have a very intimate understanding of how technology affects their daily lives and how it affects their economies. And because of that, it gets into the policy conversations, it gets into the resourcing and budget conversations in governments and elsewhere, and creates a virtuous cycle.� Mr. Dhesigen Naidoo �When we think about the future cooperation between Japan and the member countries of SADC we have to admit that there are different conditions prevailing in each of the SADC member countries as well as each of the African countries. So, for Japan, or I should say the Japanese government, would like to find out the appropriate way of cooperation which fits into the actual condition in each of the African countries.� H.E. Mr. Yoichi Otabe ��for developing countries, there is a minimum level of technology capability that has to be there if ODA is to produce sustainable results.� H.E. Dr. Ben Ngubane �People today are not retiring. We are having people just die within two years of service�five years, ten years�all the way right up into Cabinet. There is nobody who is spared from this disease HIV-AIDS. So can we incorporate programs that will promote these issues seriously?� H.E. Mr. Godfrey Simasiku �The most important thing I think, and JICA is thinking, is the commitment of the people and of the government. In Japanese history we can show many examples; our fathers, our grandfathers tried very hard for our own people. They tried to get the new technologies from outside Japan. But the most important thing is that they tried to use that technology for our own people. The commitment.� H.E. Mr. Atsushi Hatakenaka �JICA has changed the working style after we got the new President, Madam Ogata. It used to be that we approached development in Africa and other areas starting from what we can offer. Taking consideration of our own experiences and history, we start

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from what we can offer Africa. But we have changed our approach 180 degrees. We try to respond to the demands, �What do you need?� We like to get the information, so your opinion, your observations, what you need for development. Then we think of what we can offer. This is the new approach�In the past we were only approaching the government, but sometimes governments don�t know, I�m sorry to say, the conditions in rural areas; they just know the bureaucrats, the governments. But they don�t know really what the community needs. So we approach the communities. But not only the communities we have to talk to the governments�both sides.� H.E. Mr. Atsushi Hatakenaka ��I think through JBIC there is already a framework of preparation that we have seen this morning. This framework needs to be well known by our institution in Africa, by our businessman, so that we can really promote the joint venture between Japanese companies and African companies with adequate funding, not only for ODA, and also funding for promoting loan in business communities and so forth.� Mr. Jean Christian Obame �We as Embassies of Southern African countries have set up what we call the South African Science and Technology Community (SASTeC), and our hope is to develop programs that will strengthen partnership between our region and Japan in the area of science and technology. But I must say, quite often it is difficult to work from the distance of Japan with our people on the ground in Southern Africa� in your view, how do you think we can make SASTeC a success? How do we link up people with our people on the ground so that what we are doing here doesn�t just become a talk show?� H.E. Mr. Oscar Motswagae �It�s going to be very important for South Africa�s Minister of Foreign Affairs to input this in the Council of Ministers of SADC as an initiative that directly works with TICAD in Japan by the SADC Ambassadors. Once the Ministers� Council of SADC adopts this as one of their mechanisms to work more closely with SADC, it�s going to be more possible for us as SASTeC to work with MEXT, to work with Foreign Affairs, to work with METI, on these very issues. And of course as the JICA Senior Vice-President indicated, JICA, is open to hearing what hear as countries of SADC want to see happen.� H.E. Dr. Ben Ngubane ��for the past three TICAD, science and technology has probably not been very much highlighted yet. I personally feel that we have a very nice platform towards the goal to create very tangible output. And then, I would say this is about time for us to create some kind of task force team to table a concrete proposal.� Mr. Koichi Hagiwara �Director General Nishigahiro�s explanation of how the various S&T institutions in Japan coexist and cooperate not only within Japan, but externally on the international stage, I think holds many lessons for us in Africa.� H.E. Mr. Stuart Comberback

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Mr. Vuyani Lingela, Counsellor: Science and Technology, South African Embassy � Programme Director

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for your presence. An honorable guest from South Africa from other parts of the world and friends of SASTeC, we appreciate your presence this morning here. Just to make a quick introduction, my name is Vuyani Lingela of the Counsellor for Science and Technology at the Embassy of South Africa. To start off this morning, I would like to express our sincere gratitude for your presence and we hope that this will indeed be a fruitful meeting. And to proceed then, I would request our honorable Ambassador Motswagae, the Ambassador of Botswana to Japan to welcome us all on this occasion of the SASTeC Workshop on International Partnership in Science and Technology for Economic Development with a focus on Africa and Japan. Ambassador, please.

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H.E. Mr. Oscar Motswagae, Ambassador of Botswana � Welcoming Address Ladies and Gentlemen, it gives me great pleasure to welcome you all to this important workshop. We are most pleased that the Director General for Africa in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, Mr. Otabe, is here with us today. I also wish to recognize Mr. Mori, Director, Second Africa Division and Mr. Tanabe, Deputy Director-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We are happy to have you here. We also have representatives of academic institutions, many of which have made significant contributions to capacity building in our countries. Thank you very much for being here with us. Some of you represent non-governmental institutions that have also extended a helping hand to our countries and our Embassies on many occasions. I�m also glad to see other Ambassadors from Africa. Thank you for supporting us. We welcome and thank you all for being here with us today. Distinguished guests, distinguished participants, there is no question that science and technology is essential for sustainable development, for growth, and for poverty reduction. It is, therefore, imperative that we do more and a lot more to strengthen cooperation between Africa and Japan in the area of Science and Technology. This highlights the importance of the theme of this workshop. International Partnership in Science and Technology for Economic Development: Africa and Japan. As SADC Ambassadors in Japan, we have adopted a new organizational structure to enhance our capacity to carry out this agenda more effectively and efficiently. We have established a Southern African Science and Technology Community, SASTeC, to help us achieve the following objectives: To increase flow of science, of scientific knowledge, and resources to Africa through partnership in joined programs with Japan; To facilitate the participation of Africa as a significant player in the international science and technology arena; and To facilitate partnership in science and technology between African countries and Japan. The government of Japan has demonstrated through bold wits and action that it is committed to helping Africa create new opportunities for economic and social development. The ball is therefore in our court as representatives of African countries to come up with programs and strategies to enhance development cooperation with Japan, taking advantage of the TICAD initiative and programs. Other partners such as academic institutions, non-governmental organizations, and several society groups, several of which are represented here at this workshop, are also important stake holders. They can foster opportunities to involve our students and researchers in their programs. It is my hope that this workshop proves to be a positive and valuable experience for all the participants. We should all share experiences and formulate ideas about long term strategies for partnership in science and technology for sustainable economic development. I can assure you that as SADC, we are committed to working with all stake holders to achieve shared objectives and to learn from Japan�s trends and experiences. We see SASTeC as a forum that will enable us to focus on the big picture and to formulate ideas about long term strategies for cooperation. It is imperative, therefore, if the workshop is to succeed, for its outcome to be practical and implementable. It is crucial that it is a workshop of ideas, of proposals,

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and action for change. We should dispense of the notion that Africa is predestined to failure. Yes, many of our countries are yet to see the benefits of advances in science and technology, but the success of countries around the world, in Asia and elsewhere, is living proof that Africa too can do likewise. I have no doubt that each of the presenters will provide valuable input for us to identify measures to support concrete commitment to move ahead with this important agenda. Let me conclude my remarks by thanking our host, His Excellency Ambassador Ngubane. Your Excellency, we are impressed by your leadership and commitment to the modernization of the economies of African countries. We thank you very much for taking the leadership in our group to propose this initiative, the idea of SASTeC, by hosting it. It�s a sign that you are committed to leading us and committed to ensuring that other countries and African countries benefit from the experience of Japan in the area of science and technology. And I wish to thank you very much on behalf of all my colleagues. Thank you very much.

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Mr. Vuyani Lingela, Counsellor: Science and Technology, South African Embassy

Thank you very much Ambassador for the uplifting address. I will now request honorable Ambassador Roosevelt Gondwe, Ambassador of Malawi, who will introduce to us why we are gathering here this morning. And now to request to Ambassador. Please Ambassador. H.E. Mr. Roosevelt Gondwe, Ambassador of Malawi � Introduction

Your Excellencies. The Chairperson of the Committee of Southern African Ambassadors, the Ambassador of Botswana, His Excellency Oscar Motswagae, the Director-General of Sub-Saharan African Affairs, Mr. Otabe, the Director-General for the Science Council of Japan, the Director-General for Assistance Department for the Japan Bank for International Operation, the Director-General for International Cooperation in the Department of Science and Technology in South Africa. Distinguished guests, Ladies and Gentlemen. It�s a great honor for me to be given this opportunity this morning to make a short introductory remark on this important workshop. Let me start by stating the importance which the African Ambassadors in Tokyo put on the Southern Africa Science and Technology Community (SASTeC). Our leaders in the region, through the first African Conference on Science and Technology, held in South Africa in November 2003, and also the African Conference on Science and Technology in Senegal in 2005, recognized the importance of developing comprehensive and innovative science and technology policies. At these meetings, our leaders in the region have continuously emphasized their commitment to collective action in developing and using science and technology for the social economic transformation of our continent. And by coincidence, the Prime Minister of Japan, Junichiro Koizumi, has also indicated his commitment and Japan�s commitment to the expansion of partnership with Africa. We, the Ambassadors of SADC, therefore, have used the directions of our leaders and their commitment and the pledges by the Prime Minister of Japan to establish this unique mechanism called the Southern Africa Science and Technology Community, (SASTeC). The objectives of SASTeC have already been mentioned by the previous speaker. I should state that they are quite ambitious. It is our desire that at this workshop, however discussions which will bring Japan and SADC closer in order to achieve those goals. I have to recognize that in this room, we have been honored with the presence of very high level dignitaries from Japan. And it is my honor on behalf of my colleagues; to thank all of them for their support in our efforts. Your Excellencies, the chairperson and other distinguished guests, thank you for your attention.

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Mr. Vuyani Lingela, Counsellor: Science and Technology, South African Embassy

Thank you very much His Excellency for your presentation and introduction. Our next speaker, presenting a keynote address this morning, Mr. Kaname Nakano. He is the Director-General for Development Assistance Department of the Japan Bank for International Cooperation. And from his presentation, we expect to learn what works and what does not work. He will present some practical examples to stimulate our thinking on the way forward in order to enhance cooperation between Africa and Japan beyond the borders of SADC, to extend our corporation in total to the African sphere and beyond science and technology to improve the welfare of all. Thank you very much, sir. Thank you. Mr. Kaname Nakano, Director General, JBIC � Working Models for Cooperation between Africa and Japan Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, it is my great honor and pleasure to be able to deliver a speech in front of such distinguished guests. As I am being introduced, I am the Director-General in charge of African countries at JBIC and maybe I will use handouts. I think all of you have already got handouts so I would like to make an intervention by using handouts that I delivered to all of you. And this morning, I would like to touch up on what we are doing or thinking for the purpose of assistance for African countries. I would like to touch up on some concrete examples, in the past or even ongoing, which we feel successful for the economic and social development of the country of the region, First, I would like to briefly touch upon what we are and first page, Status. As some of you might already know, what we are about, we are a governmental agency established in 1999 by integrating two institutions. One is former Exporting Bank of Japan and the other is Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund. By integrating these two institutions, our role is to promote and to execute Japan�s external economic policy as well as economic cooperation. And some of you might hear from the news that, by the initiative of the Prime Minister, Mr. Koizumi, the administrative reform is being undertaken and it is my understanding that the conclusion will come out early next month. But, in spite of all, it is our understanding and conviction as well as our sincere hope that no change will be made as to the role and function that we are playing and according to the report even the name JBIC will remain. But the important is that whatever the form of the organization might be, the role and function that we�re playing is considered to be important not only for Japan, but also to the development of the world economy, and society. Therefore, we would like to continue our work. Next, as I mentioned earlier, we have two pillars within the organization. One is what we call IFO, International Financial Operation. That is to promote Japanese exports and/or imports, as you might know, each OECD country has this kind of institution to promote their own exports. But when you say export, it�s not the export of consumer goods, but rather the export of plants, and other kinds of capital goods. Therefore, that export normally enhance, promote the economy of the receiving countries.

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Another role is to promote Japanese activities overseas mainly for indirect investments and, needless to say, that serves for not only Japanese companies, but also that will serve for the economic development of recipient countries. The other pillar is what we call OECO, Overseas Economic Cooperation Operation. That is classified as ODA but I will elaborate on technical details, but in short, this operation is softer in terms of interest rate, duration of the loan, etc. So that is classified as ODA. Next page, I would like to briefly touch up on what we have been doing in African countries total operations and accumulative total commitment so far is something about 5 trillion yen, that�s more than 40 billion US dollars equivalent. That is the end of March last year. So, of course, this fiscal year we are doing another commitment, so the number is increasing. And next page. This page illustrates Japan�s policy for African development and, a distinguished colleague from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs might elaborate on this so I would like to be brief on this, but what we would like to stress on here is that as philosophy of Japanese assistance, we regard the ownership of each recipient country as the key factor. And as I explain to you later on, without the ownership of a recipient country, we feel that any assistance aid will not be successful in its real meaning. And one more thing that I would like to touch up on is the third sentence of strategically expansion of ODA. As you already know, Japanese government made a commitment to double ODA to African countries in the next coming three years. But within that framework, our bank, of course, would like to make maximum efforts. But one of them is to implement what we call EPSA, Enhanced Private Sector Assistance for Africa in partnership with African development bank. I will touch upon this later on a little bit more in detail. Next page, I would like to explain medium terms strategy of OECO. This is, as I told you, classified as ODA for African region. And of course, poverty reduction is one of the important goals for assistance. But as you could understand from my explanation, since our role is to extend credit to those countries, therefore we are very much keen on the status of the debt of each recipient country. And, as you know, many of the countries are suffering from heavy indebtedness. Therefore we would like to address these issues. But as you know, Japanese government also made an initiative to cancel some of the existing debts for what we call HIPC (Highly Indebted Poverty Countries), that is important momentum for our intervention because of those debt problems, we were not able to extend new credits but, because of that initiative, we feel that we can resume new operations even for those countries. Not to mention those countries those do not have debt problems. I would like to stress that in any event, our loans will be given to those countries that have relatively good solvency. Otherwise, in any event, our assistance is in the form of the loan. But this is a very important element. Loans must be repaid. In order to repay the loan, the country must be solvent and self sufficient in that sense. Therefore, as I mentioned earlier, ownership of each country is very much important. And in

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order to solve those problems such as debt problems or poverty, we would use modernity to increase social and economic infrastructure. Of course there are a number of modalities or tools to address issue but we strongly feel without development, it is, in the end, very difficult to solve all the problems such as poverty. Therefore, we put most importance to the increase of social and economic infrastructure, such as roads, railways, energy, of course electricity, and telecommunications, etc. One more thing is that, as I underlined here, the development of private sector is also important for the success of economic development of the country. As I mentioned earlier, under the whole framework initiated by the Japanese government, we would like to start what we call EPSA initiative for Africa. Within the upcoming 5 years, we committed ourselves to extend new credits totaling 1 billion US dollars equivalent with the corporation of the African Development Bank and there are main 5 targeted areas. They are improvements in investment climate, strengthening the financial sector, improvements in economic and social infrastructure, and support for small and medium sized enterprises, and promotion of trade and for indirect investment. As you can see from these 5 targeted areas, we feel the promotion of so called private sector is very much important for the success of future economic and social development of the region. Actually, I went to Tunis, the headquarter of the African Development Bank, last month to sign the framework agreement and we are now under formulating new projects in collaboration with the African Development Bank. Maybe I better mention the first loan to be granted. Our team is working very hard to sign the loan agreement for Senegal for the construction of road project between Senegal and Dakar and Bamaco of Mali and hopefully we would like to sign the loan agreement next month. This will be the first project but, of course, there are a number of pipeline projects and we would like to accelerate our activities in order to meet our commitment as I mentioned: one billion dollars within 5 years. Next steps to be taken. What is meant is that how to tackle or how I would like to touch up on this strategy for enhancing or implementing our activities for the support of the region. First, of course, we have to identify priority countries. But from our point of view, as I reiterate, since our assistance is in the form of a loan, even if it is a very concessional, I mean soft and favorable one, therefore, debt sustainability of the recipient country is an important element. Next criteria are what we call CPIA which means Country Policy and Institutional Assessment. In short, the governments and various economic indicators must be sound and stable. Thirdly, since we are bilateral donor, relationship with Japan, not only in economic terms but also in social, cultural, in many senses, is also important. Frankly speaking, our establishment is very much limited and, unfortunately, we do not have as many offices as other institutions have in the region. Therefore, we would like to

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cooperate with other donors or agencies such as JICA, African Development Bank, World Bank, etc. And therefore, we would like to strengthen our capacity. And also, one of the key elements for successful implementation of our operation in the region is that to find out a project which will serve not only for the recipient country itself but the overall regional development. The reason is simple because the size of the economy of each recipient country is not that big. What we call �scale of economy� is very much important. We would like to find out that kind of project that serves for development of all regions. Therefore, we would like to collaborate with NEPAD. Actually, I understand the Secretary General of NEPAD is coming early next month. We would like to have an intense discussion with them to enhance our collaboration. And when we say types of loans, I just briefly mention we are now under review for the possibility of extending new credit to Tanzania in collaboration with the World Bank. That will be in the form of co-financing with Poverty Reduction Support Credit, what we call PRSC. This is not a traditional project type lending but it�s sometimes very important not only to know the project itself but rather the overall framework policy of the country as well as the overall development strategy of the country. Therefore, we would like to enter this kind of cooperation with the World Bank by enhancing the assistance effect of each project. Next page shows us things which are a little bit different from what I�ve been explaining. That is when I have interviews with Ambassadors or officials from various countries, they say, �Why Japanese companies cannot come to our countries more in order to make foreign direct investments.� And I have to say that we are subject to the opinions of Japanese companies. But some Japanese companies are very much cautious and, therefore, without knowing the market very well, their speed for direct investment is rather slow, I have to admit. But there are some of the key elements or factors in order for the promotion of foreign direct investments. That is because this is clearly shown by the review and study made by our bank. Our bank, undertakes the study and interviews with various Japanese companies for the possibility of foreign direct investment in the world. Not only African countries. And we�ve been asking them, �What are the key elements for foreign direct investment?� Their answers are four key elements.

One of them, the first one is growth potential as a market. Of course, they look at the market itself. Not only for the country itself.

The second element is, of course, inexpensive labor force and human resources.

But this is not all for the decision for foreign direct investment or incentive for the direct investment.

The third one, transparent and stable operations in legal system are very much

important. Our bank now has undertaken in Asian countries for the study of this kind of legal system and we are making advices to companies as well as host governments. But I would like to stress on this point. It is very important since, in particular Japanese companies, direct investment is a long-term view. Therefore, stableness of a legal system or framework is very much important.

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And the fourth one is, not to mention, the infrastructure is very much important. Therefore, as I mentioned earlier, we would like to put very much importance to the promotion of various infrastructure projects.

And next, I would like to touch up on concrete examples on what I�ve been doing in the region. When we say Africa region, we include, of course, North African countries. So maybe you have another handout about our project in Tunisia. �Description on World Study of Science and Technology Pact Development Project.� Last year, we signed a loan agreement which amounts to some eight billion Japanese yen for Tunisia. And we are now working to start implementation of this project. I think this project is somewhat unique in the sense that of course we are undertaking many projects for the scientific and technological support, but this one is for the purpose of development. What we call �Technology Park�, in Japanese, we say �Techno Park� in Tunisia. Some of you might already know that there is a university called Tsukuba in Ibaragi prefecture. Our idea is to create this kind of complex in Tunisia. And we would like to invite some of the excellent students from Tunisia to Japanese distinguished universities for the study. And we will start this program from this year on, and with advice of some of Japanese university people as well as technical people. Tunisian government is now implementing this project by constructing a new complex in Tunisia. And our idea is to diversify the economic structure of the country. But it�s not that easy task. Therefore, our idea is to establish this kind of complete complex. But, of course, to construct buildings is one thing but we need software. Therefore, as I mentioned, we would like to try to invite good students from the country to have further immersion in technology and science area. And this is a very unique and new project, so of course we have to do much more things. It is our sincere hope that this will be a successful case. And if it�s the case, of course we would like to expand this kind of experiment to other countries. One more concrete example, this is the last one, but again I hope you could look at the very last page of my handout. �Supporting Japanese companies� business development overseas� Many of you may have already known this project but we�ve been supporting an aluminum smelter plant project in Mozambique. The project is called: Mozal Project. This entire region is very rich in natural resources, but maybe they need capital as well as some technology in order to exploit these natural resources. But at the same time, Japan almost does not have natural resource at all. Not to mention oil but also other minerals, etc. Therefore, there is a good collaboration, the possibility for collaboration between two countries or regions. And our bank is trying to support the efforts undertaken by those two partners. In the case of Mozambique, as you might know, Mitsubishi Corporation is one of the stake-holders in the project, together with World Bank Group, supported this project in the form of what we call �project finance�. In other words, when we used project finance key, it is a rather sophisticated financing technology. We do not ask the guarantee from the host government, but, rather, we would like to use the cash flow of generated after the construction of the project. Of course there are a number of security package, needed for this kind of technology. But, since ultimately this kind of product produce a good cash flow, we would like to enhance this kind of operations in

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other products as well. So this is financial technology. So in using this type of financial technologies for the host countries to increase or enhance the product which otherwise might not be viable. And there�s awful intervention but in any event we would like to try to open our door so that we would have much closer contact with people form other countries. I myself will go to Namibia from tomorrow to finalize negotiations for new land. And it is my hope that we would like to sign a loan agreement by the end of the next fiscal month. This will be the first inland to Namibia. Japanese government has already made a commitment but we are under negotiations with the terms of the loan agreement. But this is for the road construction project but in any event we would like to identify a good project by using various channels but as I mentioned earlier our staff members are limited and we like to do maximum efforts. You are more than welcome to have any kind of questions or inquiries etcetera. Thank you very much.

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Mr. Vuyani Lingela, Counsellor: Science and Technology, South African Embassy

Thank you very much to Mr. Nakano for this presentation. As we have mentioned earlier we will request Mr. Nishigahiro, Director General of the Science Council of Japan to give insight on science and technology efforts for economic development. Mr. Wataru Nishigahiro, Director-General: Science Council of Japan, Cabinet Office � Strategic Partnership in Science and Technology for Economic Development: Opportunities for Africa and Japan Well good morning ladies and gentlemen. Thank you very much for your introduction. Ambassador Ngubane has taken a very important initiative to start a group of Southern Africa Science and Technology Community. I�m very glad that Mr. Otabe, my good friend in the foreign ministry is also giving a presentation here and he�s going to concentrate on the globalization and energy affair as I heard from him. I would rather concentrate myself on today�s topic of science and technology and especially how the establishment plays different roles of the organization in relation with science and technology interacting each other and also the basic orientation of the science policy of Japan. I find that, to start with, the previous speaker from the JBIC was very interesting. I used to do exactly that kind of work in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Especially in those days around the year 2000, about 5 or 6 years ago, when Mrs. Claire Short of the UK was very active. She wanted to concentrate all the ODA toward poverty aspect to fight against poverty and we, because of the ODA policy of which was outlined by the representative of the JBIC, I was fighting very hard against her. We thought that in order to alleviate poverty, economic growth is important and for the purpose of economic growth infrastructure is necessary. Especially a later period in the more recent days, I�m very much convinced about that because of my experiences in India until last year Many people talk about China and India these days. But between China and India there is a discrepancy of development about 20 to 30 years because of lack of infrastructure. In Delhi, even in a hotel like this, electricity goes off all of a sudden. You have to continue the talk as if nothing has happened. That is quite easy if you are accustomed to living in India for 3 months or one year but immediately after returning from Japan back to India, I found it awfully difficult to adjust myself to this way of life. What India needs for the moment is water, electricity, roads, lots of infrastructure so the infrastructure parts that Mr. Nakano was talking about is very important. But the new aspect is what you are doing today that when we talk with other colleagues and scientists in various meetings. Nowadays, the topic of the day is how to make use of science and technology for the use of development and I think the concept of the role of science and technology for the purpose of development is still a new thing. That is what the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, especially Mr. Otabe�s Bureau and also the Economic Cooperation Bureau headed by Mr. Sato. They are supposed to tackle this new aspect of science and technology. I have just distributed the resume in Japanese, but for those people who understand English, I would like to mention the outline of my talk first. Firstly, I�ll talk about some of the bodies in our country dealing with science and technology policy. After that, I will mention about

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the G8 activities, the G8 framework, followed by the science and technology policy of Japan and finally I will cover its relationship with Africa. Firstly, I would like to explain some of the institutions and organizations which deal with science and technology in our country. There are many, the four bodies in addition to the traditional ministries, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology [MEXT], International Economy and Trade, that kind of ministry. But at the same time there are four main bodies, involving themselves in the science policy. There is firstly Japan Academy which is abbreviated as JA. When you came through downstairs you saw the sign that is a different JA, the Japan Agriculture. The JA I�m talking about is the Japan Academy, JA, which is located in Ueno. And this one is mainly the honorary body. The Members are very limited and those who made a very big contribution to the development of science to our country are selected, and provided with the pension. So, the problem with this organization institute is that it�s of a very high dignity that most of the members are too old to make overseas travel. So, this is the JA. And another one is the JSPS, the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. This is also like JA, governed by the Ministry of Education. The main goal of JSPS is to distribute the subsidy money among the scientist. It�s an organization that has money. As the remaining two; the Science Council of Japan (SCJ) and the Council for Science and Technology Policy (CSTP). These belong to the Cabinet Office and responsible to report to the Prime Minister, Chief of Cabinet and relevant parties. Before going into Science Council of Japan, I will talk about the CSTP. It is a Council. In our country, the decision on the basic policy of science is made by the CSTP. The CSTP is composed of 15 members including Prime Minister. Prime Minister chairs the meeting. Actually they meet once a month and it just happens that today later in the afternoon, there is a CSTP meeting headed by Prime Minister Koizumi. I have to go there. The 7 persons out of 15 are Cabinet Ministers and remaining 8 persons are scientists. They represent various aspects of science, both human and natural sciences. That is CSTP and our president, the President of the Science Council of Japan, currently Dr. Kiyoshi Kurokawa, is a member of CSTP. Our head is an ex-official member of CSTP. So that is how CSTP is composed. The Science Council of Japan is composed of 210 members including various aspects of science, not only the sciences like physics and engineering but also human and social studies aspect of sciences. This body of 210 has got three main purposes of activities that I will mention here. Firstly to come up with proposals. It�s an advisory body. We can make proposals, advisory opinions, to the decision-makers and also the public at large on whatever subject we choose. So, that is important aspects of ours. Secondly, providing the forum for the scientists to exchange interdisciplinary exchanges is important so that they can get inspiration and come up with new ideas. The third aspect of our activity is to increase the awareness of the role of sciences to the general public. And so the relationship with the community is an important aspect when it comes to it. All these three areas of activities are not limited to the domestic activities in our country. The international aspect of our activities play an is important role in our activities. Talking about international activities, it does not only include advisory role, providing the forum and also the increase awareness, but we give opinions to the UN and all these we do as a part of the main activities.

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I will mention here the G8 activities. The G8 framework is very important in our country. When I go to United States, or to Europe, when I talk about the summit, they wonder what summit it is because to them there are too many summits. There are European Summit, i.e. European Council Summit, NATO summit, OECD Summit, but in our country when people talk about summit, there is only one summit, the G8 summit. So, G8 framework is very important in our process. That is the only forum in our country which provides the established framework for regular consultation of foreign policy, except the UN. And last year because of the initiative which Tony Blaire, the British Prime Minister has taken, we started the G8 science council activities. Immediately before the Gleneagles Summit, and so just about one month before the actual summit in July, in June we came up with policy recommendations that I have distributed about the G8 summit. The handout has English text in here and when you open it, it got Japanese text in-between. Last year, in G8 activities, science councils came up with a proposal to be taken into account in the actual G8 summit meeting. So we came up with two proposals, one regarding global warming and climate change. Mr. Otabe is going to mention more in detail about this one, another one is the Joint Science Academy�s statement for African development. This text attaches importance on the role of science and technology for the purpose of development. This is not a quite new phenomenon starting from last year but as it says here, science and technology innovation was a familiar issue to the 2000 in Okinawa G8 leaders, and they established a task force to address the global digital divide. Another task force was established on water in 2003 in Evian Summit. I would especially like to draw your attention to the final sentence of this statement which says that G8 should continue to keep the development of science and technology and innovation capacity on the G8 agenda in the forthcoming years, therefore, not only last year but G8 countries are starting to tackle the issue of on the role of science and technology for the development of Africa in the coming years. This year G8 Summit is going to be hosted by president Putin of Russia and it�s going to be held in St. Petersburg in July. So we in the process of coming up with our proposals, joint proposals among the G8 on the issues to be discussed in St. Petersburg. This year as we understand that Russia and other G8 members are going to concentrate on energy security firstly. Secondly on infectious diseases including avian flu, and thirdly on education. These three items seem to going to be the agenda and we are in the process of preparing our joint document on the first and the second item that is energy and infectious disease. What Japan, our Science Council of Japan and other members of the science council want to see is that continuation of this process for the next year and the coming years. After this year�s G8 Summit in Russia, the next G8 summit is going to be held in Germany in 2007. Then, the year of 2008, it is going to be held in Japan. So, for this joint initiative, we at the Science Council of Japan, have to manage and take initiative to come up with a statement. Another aspect that I would like to mention is our country�s science and technology policy. We have quite a new change just about ten years ago in 1995. Before, most of the initiative and decision-making was done based on the findings of various ministries such as Ministry of International Trade and Industry (METI) in 2001), and Science Agency (*former MEXT). About ten years ago, we introduced a system of

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Cabinet Office to take initiative to coordinate the science policies of various ministries. So in that year, 1995, the Basic Law on science and Technology Policy was decided on. And the way that the Cabinet Office does the work is that first they agree, and then enable itself with the new law enacting in the parliament. Based on that, they will establish a panel and then come up with a proposal which they call a Basic Plan. Normally it covers a period for five years, so it is Five Years Basic Plan. Because it has been established ten years ago, this is our final year of our second phase and we are going to enter the third phase in starting from April. So the third phase of the Basic Plan is in place and there the aspect which is stressed upon is internationalized policy and places more emphasis on the human development in order to face the mega competition with scientific development with other countries like China, Korea and others. Nowadays we do not only have to compete with the United States or Europe but also China and Korea. So, human development aspect is very much stressed. Some of you might have seen the Prime Minister making a policy speech in the parliament towards the end of January. That�s the first day of the parliamentary session. Normally in the first day of the parliamentary session, the Prime Minister gives a policy speech. In that policy speech he mentioned the importance of role of science and technology for the purpose of growth and in harmony with environment and protection. This year, in the 5-year plan that we have just adopted the Basic Plan, the Government has decided three hundred billion dollars in five years to be allocated for the purpose of science and technology. Now, I would like to mention a little bit about Africa in the context of science policy. As far as my experiences in the Foreign Ministry is concerned, I should like to mention the role of the Tokyo International Conference on African Development, TICAD. The TICAD process for us was very important. I was working at the UN from 1997 till 1999. Our mission was to increase the awareness of the TICAD. In those days, there were two key words such as JBIC representing was mentioning, which were �ownership� and �partnership.� From the viewpoint of ownership, African ownership, we are very glad that NEPAD was created and now in its place to take lead and it�s keeping close in touch, closer in coordination with the TICAD process. Another aspect of which is important is that Millennium Development Goals (MDG) which was decided in the year 2000 in the UN. Our Prime Minister in those days was Mr. Yoshiro Mori and Mr. Mori went there. It�s got a very concrete target like decreasing the poverty by half in 2015 and globally. That is also the area which I worked very hard and I liked it because this had very much to do with the basic ODA policy. In the period before the Cold War, before 1991, there was an incentive to provide a certain level of ODA and there�s a motivation for ODA but after the end of the Cold War, we need to have a new motivation. And we were working on the way of New Strategy for economic development which eventually led to our Millennium Development Goals. So the concept of MGD has a longer period of history. Of course in the past few years as Africa has been receiving lots of attention in their way to achieve the goal targets in MGD. But as a person who used to live in India for three and a half years, I should like to say that Asia is also poor. So together with Africa, India has to be tackled with in order to achieve MGD.

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Finally, I would like to mention one word about IAC, Inter-Academy Council. This is a fairly newly-created body, created about five years ago and it is an organization among the scientists. Just about one month ago, there was a general assembly in Amsterdam where an introduction study on Africa�s capacity building and also, the rural development in Africa were presented. Nowadays in this framework we are doing a new study on energy. It�s going to be a comprehensive study including the alternative energy resources. The IAC is providing another report recently. That is a relatively shorter report on the role of women in science. One special thing I would like to share with you in that Amsterdam meeting is that about 30 presidents of African Academies were invited in the IAC General Assembly. They were there to share the knowledge and also to share capacity-building methods. On the role of science and technology for the purpose of development, this concept is increasing its awareness and it is being promoted and widely shared. I should like to continue to farther this concept. Thank you very much.

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Mr. Vuyani Lingela, Counsellor: Science and Technology, South African Embassy Thank you very much Mr. Nishigahiro for enlightening us on this issue and very important institutions in Japan, facilitating partnerships in science and technology. Now I will like to request his Excellency Ambassador Otabe. Ambassador Otabe is also the Director General of the Sub-Saharan Africa in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He will highlight areas that are of importance for cooperation between Africa and Japan. Thank you very much. H.E. Mr. Yoichi Otabe, Ministry of Foreign Affairs � Japan and SADC Well thank you very much. Excellencies, Ambassadors ladies and gentlemen, good morning. First of all I would like to commend the initiative taken by the Ambassadors of SADC. Especially the leadership shown by Ambassador Ngubane for organizing this workshop. It�s a great pleasure for me to be here today to share with you some of my thoughts about the possible cooperation between Japan and countries in Africa including, in particular the countries in SADC. Also I would like to congratulate on the initiative of SASTeC in Tokyo. Already there has been some explanation about Japan�s policy for African development by Mr. Nakano and we�ve heard the policy framework of Japan�s science and technology as well as the aspects of the international cooperation by Mr. Nishigahiro. So I would like to make my presentation as short as possible because we have a guest from South Africa today, Deputy Director General Mr. Naidoo. I learned that he came to Tokyo just to attend this meeting. In fact I learned that he just arrived yesterday and he will be leaving tomorrow. So, in order to give him enough time, I�ll limit myself to just several points. First, regarding the state of cooperation between Japan and African countries in particular, SADC in the area of science and technology. Bilateral basis for Japan we have the governmental agreement with South Africa for cooperation in science and technology. Under the agreement between Japan and South Africa, we have started the cooperation in such area as exchange of experts under the program of the Japan Society of Promotion of Science. We also have started joint research activities in the area of biotechnology and in high temperature applications. I should confess that I am no expert in these areas so I have to refrain myself from going into detail of the specific contents of the cooperation that we have started to undertake. However, I would like to announce that under this agreement we have established a joint committee and we�re going to have the second meeting this year. I hope maybe in May or June, I have to discuss with Mr. Naidoo regarding the specific time of the meeting. Although this is the bilateral agreement between Japan and Africa, I do hope that the progress made in bilateral cooperation will benefit not only Japan and South Africa but other countries in SADC.

Now, let me turn on to the role of science and technology in several serious areas, namely in energy and environment policy area. First of all, I would like to stress what someone already mentioned that in order to achieve the sustainable development, not only in the SADC countries but globally as well, there has to be a credible energy policy as well as development policy in place. This is the case for my country, Japan,

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as well. Regarding energy policy, we know there are many producing countries and many energy-rich countries in Africa. At the same time there are many countries in Africa like in Japan that are without any energy resources. Given that situation, I think energy security is crucial for sustainable development to be achieved. Especially in view of the very high oil prices that we are witnessing today. Unfortunately, we aren�t expecting to see the reverse of this trend in the coming few years although we are going to discuss this matter in a very serious manner at the coming G8 Summit in St. Petersburg as Mr. Nishigahiro has just explained to us. In the face of this situation, I think the improvement of energy efficiency as well as introduction and the development of the energy saving and the development of the alternative resources energy should be further promoted. In this regard, science and technology has a vital role to play. In fact, this country, Japan, is heavily dependent on import of energy resources including oil and we have witnessed about 20, 30 years ago the oil crisis. We have succeeded in overcoming the very bitter experiences of this oil crisis. That�s not only because of the basic plan that the government had introduced, but also because of the high level of technology that we managed to overcome those very severe experiences. Regarding environmental policy, there are various aspects of environment policy, including, in particular, the policy to tackle global warming, forest protection, so forth. But in general, environmental policy should be carried out in a very harmonious manner with overall policy objectives of the government, which would include economic policy and energy policy. In other words, we should see to it that economic growth, energy security, and environment protection should be designed and implemented in a compatible manner. Sometimes it�s not an easy job to obtain these three objectives at once, especially the obtainment of economic growth and the protection of environment protection. These sometimes hinder each other. So to find a breakthrough for the achievement of these three objectives, which in Japan we call the Three Es, energy security, environment protection and economic growth, I think the introduction of the innovative technology should be further developed. And these are the very topics that we need for the framework of G8 as well as in our discussion in the framework of the International Energy Agency.

Lastly, for the development of science and technology in Africa including SADC countries. Needless to say, a transfer of technology among the private sectors is of utmost importance. There has been some explanation by Mr. Nakano a moment ago about the necessity of formulating a transparent and credible legal system in African countries to attract investment. But for my part, I�d like to stress the importance of having better protection of individual property rights. Quite often in Africa, not only in Africa, maybe, but quite often in developing countries, we have witnessed the case where the protection of individual property rights is insufficient. That would undermine the willingness of foreign investors to start business and that will, in turn, hinder the possible transfer of technology. I know and I have heard the limit of the capacity of most of the developing countries including the countries in Africa to establish the appropriate system of the protection of individual property rights, but should it be the case, together with the donor community we are prepared to extend our cooperation. I was planning to speak with you the very framework of TICAD as well as what we are going to do within that framework. But, as Mr. Nishigahiro has already explained the very nature of TICAD, I would just like to say that Japan together with the

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countries in Africa, the countries of SADC, would like to cooperate with you in various areas including the area of science and technology in the framework of TICAD. We are going to host the next TICAD meeting in the year 2008. I haven�t decided the very topics to be discussed during that conference, but maybe some elements of science and technology could be integrated in our discussion. I do hope the meeting today and debate we are going to have from now on, will give us a new emphasis as well as give us with some insight for the future cooperation between Japan and SADC and I�m happy to announce that next week we are going to have the visit of the head of SADC to Japan as well as the head of NEPAD, which will make us quite busy, but we would like to continue discussion with them on the basis of the discussion we are going to have today. Thank you very much.

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Mr. Vuyani Lingela, Counsellor: Science and Technology, South African Embassy Thank you very much, his Excellency, Ambassador Otabe. Now it is Mr. Naidoo�s opportunity to address us. Mr. Naidoo is the Deputy Director-General of International Cooperation and Resources in the Department of Science and Technology. And we welcome. Thank you, sir. Mr. Dhesigen Naidoo, Deputy Director-General, Department of Science and Technology � Partnership for Development: Opportunities for Africa and Japan Excellency and Ambassador Gondwe, our host today and our former Minister for Science and Technology in South Africa, further Ambassadors from SADC, our colleagues from Japan, both from the science institutions as well as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ladies and gentlemen, warm greetings from the south and I guess you need that in Tokyo. I can give you one point of solace that it is as rainy in the south as it is here. Just a few remarks before I start with my talk. Firstly, it�s very gratifying as an officer in science and technology to be able to see in the same conversation people from Foreign Affairs Ministries. It�s very unusual in most places in the world and we know that that link is very necessary and very profound. So it�s particularly pleasing to see all the Southern African Ambassadors and, indeed, representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Japan. Secondly, to offer the congratulations from Pretoria to this grouping of people who formed, I think, an incredible institution in the form of SASTeC. The link between science and technology for development dealing with both the quality of life aspects as well as our own necessity to become more and more competitive in a globalized world is actually key. And then just before I start, and I�ll talk about my outline just now, a few points of progress in the SADC sector that I think are worth noting as an update from our partnership forum that we had here in Japan last year. One is that we now have GDP spent targets for R&D in Southern Africa that is quite profound. South Africa�s own target for 1% GDP spent on R&D is 2008, Zimbabwe, in the same timeframe, has a target of 1.5% GDP spend. It gives you an indication of the kind of conversation that�s now happening in the cabinets in Southern Africa. And I think Mr. Nakano would be pleased to hear because he put down the factors that were affecting Japanese sentiment for foreign direct investment. Our Minister of Finance, in his budget vote a week and a half ago in South Africa, announced that there would now be 150% offset on tax for R&D spend in the private sector in South Africa. And I think these are the kinds of movements that are encouraging more and more people to become partners in their own science and technology development. The outline of the presentation I want to offer you today. Firstly, to tell you a little bit about the AU/NEPAD work and Africa�s Science and Technology Consolidated Plan of Action, which we�re incredibly proud about. Secondly, to talk about some of the developments in SADC Science and Technology. I�d like to spend a few moments talking about SADC as a preferred place to do science not only for people in Africa, but also people in Japan and elsewhere in the

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world. And I want to spend a moment or two talking about Japan and why we think Japan is a valued partner in our part of the world in science and technology. So to begin, the continental developments. Now we heard earlier that this institution called AMCOST (The African Ministerial Council of Science and Technology) was established in 2003 and we�re happy to have in our room today the first Chair of that structure and that was then Minister Ngubane. This structure is established, it is functioning, it is moving to a higher level of profile within the African context. One of the phenomenal things it managed to do in Senegal in September of last year is the adoption of Africa�s consolidated plan of action for science and technology. It�s an incredible document. It�s incredible because of its content, because it represented a high level of convergence right across the continent around what the 12 flagship priorities would be. And secondly, it is phenomenal in the fact that it was developed in a bottom-up manner. It didn�t come from a group of experts and filtered down; it came from regional workshops and filtered up. Now, it�s a complicated document and it�s long, but it�s all contained in this little CD that�s available at the desk up front. The third is the rapid progress with the lead programs. This platform has been in existence now for two years and a bit. It already has a substantive history. It has a highly functioning bio-sciences initiative, an African laser centre which is known in eight African countries currently and is doing work with partners all over the world. It has an institute for mathematical sciences which is a unique model of teaching anywhere in the world and we can talk about that during the question time and the water-sciences initiative has already started rolling out. So this is not a theoretical platform, it is a very practical, it is an existing and vibrant platform already. The last point and by no means least is that we�ve had very, very good international reception to this program. Not only have several partners, including the G8s, been involved in the development of the program, they�ve also been key partners, together with many other countries, in funding parts of the program and being partners to many of its projects. The two people that are on the slides, and this was in Senegal last year, it was the handover from South Africa as Chair, that�s Minister Mangena on the right, to the now Chair of AMCOST, Minister Gosama of the Republic of Senegal. So it�s not owned locally inside Africa, it�s owned all over in Africa and I think a very important point is to demonstrate, as we are demonstrating here now, that capacity in Africa is all over Africa. It�s a matter of finding it. Quickly, reflective programs. There are 12 I said and I�m going to talk about 13 and I�ll explain why. They have been divided into a series of clusters simply to make the workings a little bit easier. One of those clusters is bio-diversity, bio-technology, and indigenous knowledge. Clearly indigenous knowledge is about more than bio-diversity and bio-technology. But just operationally, it makes it easier to work. But this is one cluster of work that�s working very well currently. Second are energy, water, and desertification. And this year, as you would know, is the United Nations year of desertification so we�re going to have a very high focus in Africa around desertification this year. Third is the cluster on materials, manufacturing, laser technologies, and post-harvest technologies. The fourth cluster is ICT�s and space sciences. And the fifth cluster is mathematical sciences. I can tell

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you explicitly that not only are they projects operating in several of these, but each single one of them, of these flagships, has a business plan with a resource plan attached to it already. The picture on the right, the previous one you recognized easily, I think. It�s a bio-technology interface. On the right here is a telescope called SALT (The Southern African Large Telescope) which is currently operational in Southerland in Southern Africa. Now all of these needs to be supported by a very particular policy agenda and that policy agenda are illustrated in the Consolidated Plan of Action. The first of which is how do we measure what we�re doing? Now, Japan is a world leader in these kinds of stats. On the African continent, there�s not a lot of it happening. There are pockets of it happening in various places of Africa. South Africa, for example, had the science and technology R&D survey as a part of the official stats of South Africa. And we�re trying to get science and technology indicators also into the peer review mechanism in Africa. But this project, and it�s a very big one, is about organizing an African observatory for science and technology. This African Science and Technology Innovation Indicators Project is one that�s going to yield, the first basic set of indicators, that�s going to be used uniformly across the continent by the members of AMCOST, with the appropriate capacity support and institutional mechanisms, etc. A second very, very key point is about how to make regional science and technology cooperation work. It�s very good in theory, it�s an attractive concept, but unless you have functional mechanisms to make this happen, it doesn�t happen automatically. And some of the things associated with that are things like the Hub &-Spoke Model of the Centers of Excellence because we�re not talking about Centers of Excellence on its own anymore in this context, we�re talking about networks of Centers of Excellence. That means getting a number of institutions that have the excellence that you�re looking for in a particular discipline, networking them together, and then forming a critical mass through the network. That�s one of the mechanisms. The second mechanism is around exchange of researchers and students between and among those institutions to build a capacity as well as to spread the knowledge. So those are the kinds of things that are coming to the regional cooperation models. The third is a public understanding of science and technology. People like me are really envious when we travel because as you leave Johannesburg and you start traveling, for example to Japan, everywhere you stop, like most people, I pick up the local newspapers. And the further east you go, the more time you get in the newspapers devoted to technology issues. I don�t know if you�ve observed that yourself. And by the time you reach to Japan, you�re completely green with envy because it�s telling you that people in that part of the world have a very intimate understanding of how technology affects their daily lives and how it affects their economies. And because of that, it gets into the policy conversations, it gets into the resourcing and budget conversations in governments and elsewhere, and creates a virtuous cycle. So the public understanding of science and technology inside Africa is key for what we need to do. We also talk into some specifics. One of those specifics is a common bar technology strategy. On the African continent currently, there are about 20 of these in 20 different countries. They are not dissimilar but they are not coordinated. So there

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currently is, under the auspices of NEPAD, a task force that�s coached by Ishmail Senegali from Egypt and Collestus Jumer from Harvard University; on trying to bring this process a lot closer together. Science and technology policy construct; this is not a travail matter and is not a matter only for developing countries. In our bilateral relationship with Japan, this is one of our key points of focus. Around exchanging notes of how we work the different structures in our system. I was very appreciative of Mr. Nishigahiro�s talk this morning. It�s afternoon in South Africa. He organized a very simple narrative of how the Japanese systems works and I found that very interesting because on the face of it it�s very complex and we have to resolve these complexities and start drawing out the simple narratives of the institutions, how they interact, what makes things work and what doesn�t. And in the African context, this is the key. The last, and by no means least, is to address what they call in South Africa the Innovation Chasm. It is very, very good to have the repository of knowledge. It�s very, very good to have top class researchers in your system. It�s very, very good to have them in large numbers. But unless you can take that knowledge and put it into the real economy, you�re not going to get the kind of products that you need. It�s not unique to where we come from. We call it the Innovation Chasm. The Europeans call it the European Paradox. It�s a worldwide problem and we have to deal with it together. And we�re fairly convinced in our part of the world and in the NEPAD context that things like techno parks and incubators are the kinds of mechanism that allow us to take the knowledge and bring it out into the real economy. And we are wanting to make a substantive investment in these areas. Now I think that in all of these areas that I mentioned Japan would have a very intimate interest in developing these out as a partner. The Southern African context, and I think this is really important because one of the things that is coming out in the Southern African conversation, and there are several Southern African Ambassadors here who will know this better than I, is there is a coalescing finally around how to make the institutional mechanisms for the sub-region work in an intimate manner. I�m going to talk about the science and technology and innovation component, but the broader context is that at the last SADC Council Meeting, for the first time explicitly, there was the notion of science, technology, and innovation as being one of the core drivers of economic development. And we think this is a very, very pleasing bit of progress. So let�s talk about SADC science and technology just a little bit. What do we have currently? We have some loosely formed structures and I�ll talk just now how they�re going to get a lot tighter. We have several regional or SADC based region science and technology projects. And these are just three examples: we heard from Mr. Nakano about the Mozambique Mozal which is a very interesting example of not only an inter-country project, but also about combining research components and production components around a technology project of very high value that has both quality of life implications for poverty eradication as well as the opportunity for wealth creation for Mozambique, yes, but also for South Africa, Botswana, and Zimbabwe, but also the classical research areas.

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Astronomy is a very good example. In Southern Africa, we now have, if you�ll excuse the pun, a very good astronomy constellation of instruments. We have some of the best optical instruments in the world, SALT being the latest one of them. We have one of the most productive gamma ray telescopes in the world based in Namibia. And the gamma ray telescope in Namibia, incidentally, it�s called the HEZ telescope. It was recently a finalist in the Day Cup prize in the European Union for the kind of work it was doing. We have, in the pipeline, a bit to build the largest radio telescope in the world called the Square-Kilometer Array Telescope. It will have its core in our part of the world, but it will have the remote moving all through Southern Africa and even parts of Western Africa as well. A truly African project. And this is already on the cards. The crew base and mapping is another example of such a project. It�s geological mapping and counting involves Botswana and Namibia and South Africa with opportunities to expand into Zimbabwe as well. These are functional things that are already on the table or out in the field. What is starting to emerge in the science and technology arena in SADC is a series of very vibrant bilateral. Though several bilaterals within South Africa are with its neighbors, there are several bilaterals with the neighbors themselves. And what this is starting to do, this is starting to bring things a lot closer together. And the vibrant bilaterals are becoming a very, very important mechanism to make the multilateral forum work. The RISP and the Foreign Affairs people will know this pretty well. This is the Regional Indicative Sustainable Program in SADC. It has many problems. But one of the areas that is starting to show a glimmer of sunshine is the cooperation around science and technology. And I think this could be the foothold to make a great many other things work as well. The public understanding of science in SADC is also a high priority and in 2006 we are going to see the first SADC Science, Engineering and Technology Week. And there�s a program that�s being currently developed. The institutional structures are also starting to come closer together. One of the things that is on the verge of formation is something called the SADC Ministers Forum for Science and Technology. Now this had an interesting genesis during the meeting in Dakar of AMCOST. The Southern African Ministers got together as caucus and decided that what they needed in Southern Africa was to have this conversation among ministers themselves. And they met Maputo in November last year together with several of their officials and developed out what was called the Maputo Declaration which is also on this CD. I just want to highlight one or two things from that forum because some very, very important decisions were made and are currently in implementation. The first is motivating for a discreet SADC science and technology sector and having a SADC protocol on science and technology. While the ministers were meeting in Maputo they, at the same time, had a discussion with Executive Secretary of SADC, Mr. Salomao was very much in favor of this idea and this is already starting to progress. It will probably begin with a SADC desk on science and technology and then expand itself into a full scale sector. Secondly, the ministers themselves took the responsibility of developing the finance and resourcing plan for what is called the Domestication of the NEPAD Plan for Science and Technology. So the Southern African version of that plan of how to roll

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out in Southern Africa. And Minister Vincent from Botswana is the person who is coordinating that initiative. Third is around the free movement of science, scientists, engineers and technologists themselves as well as the scientific equipment because these are very important for joint projects to happen. And this is being linked to the free movement protocol in SADC and the science and technology movement may become one of the four runners for that. This would have phenomenal implications for how we would be able to do work inside the SADC region. The next is the Policy and Institutional Arrangement Corporation. Now I talked about this in the NEPAD context and the continental context. We want to make this a lot more vibrant in the Southern African context as well. The public understanding of science and technology and I talked about the SADC SET week proposal and there�s also proposal around a traveling exhibition in SADC; around exploring and exposing various countries to what�s happening in several of the others. Something Mr. Otabe would like to know about is that we�ve realized in the Southern Africa region our individual efforts around an intellectual property regime simply wasn�t gelling sufficiently or quickly. Several countries are working on such regimes in Southern Africa. The South African cabinet, in two months from now, will consider some new legislation based primarily on the Bayh-Dole Act of the United States on publicly funded research. But the intellectual property regime needs to go much, much further than that and one of the resolutions in Maputo was the development of a SADC protocol for intellectual property. The indigenous knowledge systems of our parts of the world are key to the way we both live and to the way we produce knowledge. Sufficient protection of our indigenous knowledge is required as well as the ability to nurture and harvest what comes out of it and this becomes another very important part of what we do. The last point on this slide is an interesting one because one of the strange things that we found in our discussions is that more South African researchers knew more Japanese researchers than they did Botswana researchers or Mozambique researchers. Simply because of the nature of the vibrant bilateral and the conversations that take place. So one of the things we resolve to do to get the science communities of all these countries working a lot closer together is to form a Southern African science and technology portal. And what it will be is a web-based instrument roughly like this. This is EUSASTAP, the European Union South Africa Science and Technology Advancement Program. And this is the portal that links the South African research community with the European research community; although it is available for anyone else to use as well. It�s an open website. And it would be very useful for you to visit this. I think it�s an interesting instrument. What we want to do is contextualize this for Southern Africa as well. It will be a voluntary exercise by the different countries and what they will do is to put their directories of researchers and scientists and engineers and make that available for anyone else in the region. And we think this would be a really useful way for people to start knowing their colleagues and seeking out partners in the region. Some of the other resolutions. The first one is a very key one around organizing for high speed network and broadband access in the Southern African region and to link three initiatives that are currently operating separately. One is Buntunet, which

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operates primarily in Mozambique and Zimbabwe and starting to flow into Malawi. The second is SANRN which is the South African National Research Network, a high speed network for research institutions in South Africa. And the third is Jeant, which is the link between South Africa and Europe. And we think linking those three will give us the kind of broadband and volume that we need to connect our people and explore the opportunities of connecting with other parts of the world. Human capital development, as in any conversation around the world in any discipline, is key. In science and technology, perhaps more urgent than most others. So the human capital development program in the SADC context is one that�s going to get resources, I think, along before many of the others. The role of science and technology in poverty eradication. It�s something that many communities of people talk about and I think, in those conversations, understand quite intimately what they are talking about. But you know elsewhere in Tokyo today there�s a G20 meeting and we have representation from our country and a few other SADC countries in that meeting as well. They also need to know what this link is. So one of the key things that we�re working on right now is developing out a paper that explicitly shows what the links are between the investments in science and technology and poverty eradication so that our planning ministers and ministries and our finance ministers and ministries and our heads of state also understand it with the same intimacy that we do. And then there�s the issue around the partnerships and there are many partnerships to be considered. There�s the Public-Private Partnership and that gets a little bit of conversation. The partnerships bilaterally and multilaterally not only between governments but also between private sector players and civil society players. There is also the importance of having the South/South collaboration. On the next set of issues, Southern Africa; and I say that our goal is to make Southern Africa a preferred destination for science and technology. What are the advantages that our part of the world can offer? One is geography. There are no other places in the world where you can study the southern skies, for example, as well as you can do in Southern Africa. No matter how good your equipment is, if you�re in the north, all you see is the northern sky. If you look at the southern constellation, geography is key. And the motivation for SALT, for example, was based precisely on that. The second is paleontology. And this is not something you can replicate anywhere else. Our part of the world has a certain pale-ontological history that is key, absolutely key, in examining the development of mankind. In June last year, we all had the privilege of going to a series of Tobias lectures. Some of which were held in Japan where we talked about this point; around the development of paleontology in our part of the world. The picture that you see there comes from an exhibit in a place called Maruping, which is in the cradle of human kind in South Africa and we all remember very clearly that when President Mbeki opened the world summit on sustainable development in 2002. The first thing he did was to invite all the delegates who were there from 190 odd countries around the world that they were welcome home because this was indeed the home of human kind. The third factor is climate. You can�t study subtropical diseases in Japan or in London or in New York. You have to do it in a subtropical area. And so the climatic conditions associated with things like disease research and human health research,

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agricultural research, etc, needs to find its place in the right kind of climate and Southern Africa provides that kind of laboratory. Bio-diversity: South Africa currently is the third most bio-diverse country in the world. The kind of bio-diversity that you get in Southern Africa offers you a wide range of opportunities both in the research field as well as the products field and we think we can offer that advantage with infrastructure in Southern Africa. And then lastly, and by no means least, there are pockets of excellence in our part of the world. While we have a general scarcity of skill, while there generally is many, many fewer scientists than we need. We do have some remarkable institutions and some remarkable people who are currently working in several areas. So what do we want to see happening? Well, firstly, we�d like to see the broader world community thinking about locating large multi-country projects and infrastructure and institutions in our part of the world. Some examples: I spoke about the Square Kilometer ray telescope, and Japan, incidentally, hasn�t signaled which way it will vote on that bidding and there are a few countries involved in that and I think we have to talk to you quite intimately. But there are other things as well, like the European Union Clinical Trials Partnership for Developing Countries, the EDCTP. Currently is located in The Hague and in Cape Town as the Africa office. We are currently bidding with several other countries to locate the third component, the third major international laboratory of the International Center for Genetic Engineering and Bio-technology in our part of the world. What it will mean for us, it will convert Southern Africa into a major, major international bio-technology hub for research. So we�re encouraging more and more partners to start looking in Southern Africa around locating these projects there. The second thing that we want for Southern African research groups and scientists is to become preferred partners in many projects. Mr. Otabe talked a little bit about the bilateral work that happens between our countries but, already, several of our researchers in South Africa and several researchers in Japan are starting to form quite powerful research consortia around competing for funds in the framework program of the European Union, for example, and the NIH ones. So there is an availability in the world for the kind of resources if we simply can get ourselves together. But you see, the benefit doesn�t only go in one direction. The benefit goes always in two directions. And this graph, which I also talked about last year at our forum, I think it�s quite significant. In order for countries like Japan, who are on the x-axis, have a fairly high investment in science and technology and not getting the kind of citation that they want. The way that you elevate that point in the graph is by having the appropriate international partnership to make that shift. And we think that Southern African investment can organize for that shift for Japan. Why do we want to impress on Japan to become a closer partner to us? And what are the avenues in which one can do it? I think Japan can have a much increased profile in the implementation of the consolidated plan of action, the AU/NEPAD plan for science and technology in Africa. Now, the G8 has been very expressive on this issue. But the people who have been talking on behalf of G8 on this issue with Africa has been the United Kingdom through David King, Canada through Avacotti and Italy through Minister Morrati. The Japanese voice in that conversation has not been loud. We know it�s there because we see it in the declarations. We know it�s there because

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it comes in various aid packages. But it would be useful if there was a higher profile around the Japanese intervention, around the NEPAD plan than there currently is and maybe the meetings that are going to happen next week between Japan and the SADC hierarchy and the NEPAD hierarchy will do what it needs to do to get to that point. The second point is the raising of the profile of science and technology in the TICAD context. We�re, I think, collectively encouraged from the Ministry of Science and Technology in South Africa as well as mixed in Japan that science and technology is going to get a higher profile in the TICAD discussions and we�d like to explore that in a lot more detail. The third is an increase in involvement in the Southern African science and technology agenda. As I explained in a couple of slides before, one is developing quite robustly. And not too soon from now, there will be a SADC science and technology protocol and not soon after that there will be a science and technology plan of action to engage with. The next point is about exploring novel mechanisms around this engagement. I mean one of the things our Japanese colleagues tell us very often, and believe me we�ve internalized this, is that South Africa is a middle income country and, therefore, is not a candidate for ODA. That�s fine. There are things that we can explore in that discussion. But a new model that�s coming under the table, and this we discussed with JICA in Pretoria, is can we explore trilateral partnerships? Can we explore the kind of partnership where, for example, we do a project in Mozambique? Or Zimbabwe? Or Malawi? Where South Africa will pay its part of the bull in engaging in that project and perhaps a country like Japan can assist the other country that has fewer resources in order to be able to participate. And I think there are lots and lots of opportunities like that that are coming up more and more often. And then you can have benefit for all three partners in a very vibrant way. And I think these are the kinds of things we can explore. The last point is about the G8, the Commission for Africa, and the OECD, and the TICAD mechanisms because all of these have lots of the right elements in the declarations around where we can get to. What we seem to be able to need to do is to start exploring how we can unpack that and actually do it; bring it to the point of implementation. Ladies and gentlemen, I thank you very much for that and this for me is a special slide and maybe I should stop using it because I use it so often, but this really epitomizes the meeting of two parts of the world. This was at the INSITE Exhibition in 2004 and we will be having the second of those in September this year, and this was the Japanese stand and the robot you see there is a robot called Pino, short for Pinocchio, and he�s meeting some very, very enthused, young South African students from a local school in Johannesburg. And it�s a meeting that had very interesting repercussions because the feedback that we�ve had from that school around this interest has been simply enormous and many of them are engaging in many of our broader based public understanding of science engineering and technology programs. Thank you all very much.

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Mr. Vuyani Lingela, Counsellor: Science and Technology, South African Embassy Thank you very much to Mr. Naidoo for this presentation. Indeed, keeping us abreast of development in Africa and Southern Africa. We will start with the discussion session. Ambassador of Zambia. Ambassador Simasiku will lead us on this item. Ambassador thank you.

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H.E. Mr. Godfrey Simasiku, Ambassador of Zambia � Discussion Session Chair, Excellencies, I�ve enjoyed this morning listening to very distinguished personalities giving us very valuable presentations. Our topic this afternoon is a session on Southern African Science and Technology. What we can do with the Japanese experience. I want you to imagine, you are aboard a plane, a 747, or these big airbuses. And they ask you to go in the cockpit and take off and fly that plane. Some people have managed to land the small planes under control Tower instruction when some would collapse in the cockpit. But here on the ground to takeoff I bet 99 percent would not be able to move that plane. But we have to take off. Now, I recall reading a book in the early 60s. It was a textbook in our schools. �Africa Attacks Poverty� by someone who wrote it I think for his PhD. I remember reading that in my first high school in 1960. But today if I were to write for my thesis I would change that topic to say �poverty attacks Africa�. Now I want to finally invite you to imagine why we want to put emphasis on science and technology in our continent, in our region. Back home, people still trust the naked eye to determine how good what they have is. For example, water in our river, some people just use their hands to turn around the water and they look with the naked eye; and conclude it is safe to drink and they will drink. But, we know today there is a lot of contamination that the naked eye can�t see. So some people talk of the bionic eye. So I would like therefore, in introducing this subject, to state that in taking off in Africa, we need taking a cue from the presentations made today to make a deliberate move on science and technology and innovation like we have had. So, maybe we want to take a word from what Thomas Jefferson, an American president, who said �The plans of tomorrow are more interesting than the history of yesterday�. So, we had very, very good presentation here and finally Mr. Naidoo did mention that we need to increase the profile in the implementations and consolidation plan of Africa and raising also the profile of science and technology in the TICAD process with Japan. Increase also the involvement in the Southern African science and technology agenda and of course on the multilateral, bilateral model including the G8 from the Japanese perspective. We have always felt that we can learn from the Japanese. Therefore, a song that says �learn on me when you are not strong�. So we want to take advantage of involvement of the Japanese that have been kind enough to give us the platform for TICAD and indeed the �One Village One Product� process. So I�ll therefore invite your contributions, distinguished participants and on you have documents before you to guide us. The partnership between SADC member countries and Japan is the first one on the item, �What is the nature of international cooperation in science and technology between SADC member countries and Japan?� What can we do to stimulate international cooperation in science and technology between SADC countries and Japan? And what are the short and long-term goals for international cooperation in science and technology between Japan and Southern African countries? And also we want to look at university partnerships also look at university institute research partnerships, business to business partnerships, and business to university partnerships. Consider as we also business to research institute partnerships. And what are the conclusions.

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So, I would like therefore to invite your participation, your vision. So please all you need to do is to raise your hand, identify yourself and let�s hear what we share with you. So the floor now is open. So, we will start with the partnership between the SADC member countries and Japan. What is the nature of international cooperation in science and technology between SADC member countries and Japan? Ladies and gentlemen, the floor is open. Let�s start the ball rolling. I think the enhancement of science and mathematics in our institutions form the pillar of anything and everything that we want to achieve. We heard when Japan was giving a presentation the issue of manpower that is adequately trained. So, science and technology, what level do we want to achieve in our institutions. Because I think there is strong synergy between that and what we want to achieve. Contributions. Yes, Ambassador Botswana. Please introduce yourself.

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H.E. Mr. Oscar Motswagae, Ambassador of Botswana My name is Oscar Motswagae. I�m the Ambassador of Botswana. Thank you very much Ambassador Simasiku for you introductory remarks and I believe that all the questions that you have raised in your paper are, they are pertinent questions and think they can, they will help focus our discussions and lead to very good conclusions out of this workshop. I must say that I was really impressed by the presentation given by Mr. Naidoo because it doesn�t just speak about South Africa, yes he�s the Deputy Director-General in the Ministry in South Africa but the presentation that he made kept the essence of what is really happening in our region, the plans that we have put in place and even our intentions when we look forward as you said we have to look into the future and see exactly what we can do. Looking that at the first question, partnership between SADC member countries and Japan. What is the nature of international cooperation in science and technology between SADC member countries and Japan? I don�t want really to say that we should focus on what has been put before us by Mr. Naidoo but at the same time as I said earlier his presentations really captured what we are looking at as the Southern African region. I think he was able to identify areas where the international community, Japan in particular, can come in and support our efforts. As we say it�s really a question of partnership between us and Japan so I would want maybe to pose a question to Mr. Otabe, the Director General and say to him that a number of areas have been outlined in the presentation by Mr. Naidoo and it would be of interest to us as Ambassadors of SADC countries here. I think it is interesting, particularly that we are talking about the nature of corporation in science and technology between us and Japan. Maybe to get a sense of Mr. Otabe presented the views of his government, what is exactly available for us. But now that you know a presentation has been made on the plans we have in place I think it will be of interest to hear from the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan on the views that you may have on paper and on the presentation by Mr. Naidoo. He spoke about for example the flagship programs for research and development. He spoke about a number of projects that have already been put in place in the areas of education and the like. So if one could just maybe start by asking Mr. Otabe to make a comment on the views that have been put on the table. Thank you very much Mr Chairman.

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H.E. Mr. Godfrey Simasiku, Ambassador of Zambia

Also before Ambassador Otabe comes in to answer you might wish, Ambassador, to take into account also the point that you raised on technical buildup in the private sector. And most of our countries now are relying on the private sector for development. So, in answering the questions, you may like to see how for our situation in our region, where can we focus in this cooperation considering the high levels of your technology and our levels that need to be jump started? Ambassador. H.E. Mr. Yoichi Otabe, Director-General, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Thank you very much. In fact you have posed me such a difficult question so I will try my best to start, having read this sheet of data regarding the various type of partnership. I agree with the importance of having this multilayered structure of cooperation between Japan and SADC as well as the all the African countries. It�s not only the cooperation between government and government. But this multi-layered structure of cooperation is really needed to enhance the cooperation between Japan and the countries in Africa in the field of science and technology.

Before making my preliminary comment, to the paper prepared by Mr. Naidoo. I would like to say a few words about partnership between SADC member countries and Japan. In my view there can be no one fit for all approach, which could be adopted. When we think about the future cooperation between Japan and the member countries of SADC we have to admit that there are different conditions prevailing in each of the SADC member countries as well as each of the African countries. So, for Japan, or I should say the Japanese government, would like to find out the appropriate way of cooperation which fits into the actual condition in each of the African countries. For example, maybe between Japanese and South Africa we can aim for the cooperation in very high technology area but I don�t think that can be the case for the cooperation between Japan and those countries in Africa which are just going into the stage of consolidation of peace. Maybe for those countries that are still struggling, for the consolidation of peace, the area where we can work together is maybe building the necessary capacity for the institutions for future development. Anyway, what I wanted to stress at this lecture is that we have to find a specific approach data to the circumstances of each country.

Now regarding the document prepared by Mr. Naidoo, I like to express my appreciation for giving us such a comprehensive description of the work being undertaken in the South African government as well as in the framework SADC, AU and NEPAD. I have learned a lot from his presentation as well as his documentation. Having said that some of the comment is that I�m very happy to note that there is sort of eagerness on the part of the African countries including, in particular, SADC member countries to put high priority in the area of science technology. As he has stressed, I think that, for the sustainable development to be achieved by the countries in Africa, science and technology should form the basis of their development.

Secondly, I�m also very happy to know that the regional cooperation started to take place because, for the obvious reason, regional cooperation is of at most importance

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for the promotion of the development of the African continent. So I�m very happy to know that the regional cooperation in forms of these specific projects has started to take place in Africa. And I�m also very happy to note that there seems to be some discussion about the importance of the protection of the intellectual property rights. As well as there seems to be discussion started within the ministerial forum to discuss about free exchange of people as well as free exchange of science and technology related goods because these are the points that this government has been stressing not only within the framework of our bilateral discussion but these are the points that we have been stressing in other forum, including WTO. So I am very happy to see the mentioning about these important aspects. Also I have noted that the reference is made to the importance of the south- south cooperation. In fact the south-south cooperation is one of the uniqueness of the TICAD process because it is within this TICAD process that we have started to announce the importance of the south-south cooperation. I�m very happy to announce now that some countries in this part of the world not only Japan but such countries as Thailand have started to show their interest for the promotion of the south-south cooperation. So, I do hope that south-south cooperation will be further promoted. And maybe my last comment on his paper �Japan as a Valued Partner�. He is mentioning about leasing the profile of science technology in the TICAD process. Yes it is true that so far within this TICAD process we haven�t had much discussion on science and technology. But as we are going to prepare for the next TICAD meeting in the year 2008 as I have mentioned I do hope at least flavor of science and technology will be incorporated in the process. But, I don�t think that we can have the TICAD meeting to discuss only about science technologies because we are going to have the participation of our leaders and foreign ministers. And with my highest respect to all leaders and foreign ministers not all of them are quite acquainted with details of science and technology. So, although we will try to put some flavor, there can be some limit. Regarding the trilateral cooperation among Japan, South Africa and other countries, indeed we have already started this type of cooperation involving the government of South Africa. The case in point is which is not quite relevant to the topic of science and technology but we have started to work together among South Africa, Japan and the Democratic Republic of Congo for the promotion of the democratic process for the preparation for the election and so forth. And I�m very happy to learn from Mr. Naidoo during the lunch in time that he has started to discuss this issue with representative of JICA to explore the possibility of following the trilateral cooperation.

Lastly, regarding G8 commission, Africa, OECD and TICAD mechanism, I have not so much interest in Commission for Africa,. This is Tony Blair�s item but not Japan�s own item. Regarding G8 and OECD. Well, at G8 we don�t have any secretariat. Quite often, OECD provides us with basic support for the discussion to be held among G8. So in a way, since there was already some coordination taking place between G8 and OECD and quite recently for G8 member countries, we have decided to establish a small unit in the OECD to prepare for the discussion of the African Partnership, Forum where it is expected to follow up the various discussions made within the G8 system.

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And for the relation between TICAD mechanizm and G8 and OECD. I should say that it is the TICAD that started to draw the national attention of the African issues. Then G8 followed the TICAD. This is how we think. However, given the importance of the discussion being made within G8 and OECD and, of course, in the TICAD process as well, we are trying to find as much synergy as possible.

And in the year 2008 we will host the next TICAD meeting will be the chair of G8, so please be assured that there will be far better coordination among the work of G8 and TICAD. I think I will stop here. Thank you.

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H.E. Mr. Godfrey Simasiku, Ambassador of Zambia

Thank you director general Ambassador Otabe. Right, I was giving you an example of the 747 obviously you need an experienced pilot to take off. The scientists are the pilots to help us take off on this. Now before I invite Ambassador Ngubane of South Africa, I just want to take into account that the topic we are discussing just now will be the ground work for all the other questions. Once we thrash this out properly. Now we have to take into account change, adaptation to change, science and technology. What is the effect of this in our urban level setup? The rural areas? Because we have different layers of need of adaptation, science and technology. H.E. Dr. Ben Ngubane, Ambassador of South Africa Thank you Ambassador. I think you have touched on what I actually raised my hand to remark on. I agree with Ambassador Otabe. We can�t come to TICAD just discuss science and technology. However I think it�s important to distinguish between levels of participation in science and technology and the role it plays in development. Developed countries obviously welcome competitiveness. Advanced manufacturing, research, is critical. But for developing countries, there is a minimum level of technology capability that has to be there if ODA is to produce sustainable results.

So when we talk in terms of TICAD, we are talking in terms of human security, human resources development, fighting infections diseases. The country however disadvantaged has to have some technological capability to deal with these things. Just the vaccination of cattle to arrest tick-born diseases in tropical countries is important but that requires a certain level of technological capability for it to function. So I think it is important to stress both sides of the level: very highly advanced competitiveness but also basic survivalist technology. The capability must also be present.

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H.E. Mr. Godfrey Simasiku, Ambassador of Zambia Right, before I invite Ambassador Nakamura, I want you to consider what Ambassador Ngubane has just mentioned. He mentioned amongst the points that he was raising about cattle, you can vaccinate your cattle, etcetera, but you have other important aspects to consider. I would like you to give us a comment. We heard about Tsukuba international institution this morning being mentioned. We also want to hear from the Japanese side. Three years ago we were told there was a vaccine that you were working on. Tsukuba told us this is three in one vaccine. We need to fight cattle diseases, because cattle are the backbone of the wealth of our people. How far are we in trying to mitigate this process? Ambassador Nakamura. Ambassador Nakamura has been Ambassador to Zambia and to other countries. When he was there so we got to know each other so well. Mr. Yoshihiro Nakamura, Executive Director, Japan International Labour Foundation (Former Ambassador of Japan to Zambia) Thank you very much. I would like to make a couple of specific points. First as Ambassador Simasiku mentioned, I was stationed in Zambia before. So while I was staying there, I observed various aspects of Japanese economic cooperation for Zambia and Malawi. And the government of Japan and JICA established a very fine institution, the Infectious Disease Center in Zambia�s main hospital and also we established the Department of Veterinarian Science in the University of Zambia. Both are very successful and as a matter of fact I was very much pleased to attend a graduation ceremony of various students, scientists including those from neighboring countries. . So in that sense the south-south cooperation has been going on in Zambia actually. Since I retired from the Foreign Service last year, I have worked for the Japan International Labor Foundation. We have extended various field projects in developing countries, including workers safety and health. That is very practical but is very important. That aspect is very important in contributing to the betterment of productivity of companies, so that it should be accepted by both the employers and employees. We have been very successful in conducting this worker�s safety and health projects, mainly in Asian countries. We are now planning to extend this project to African countries as well. We already launched an AIDS Program in Zambia on a trial basis. We are going to see another series of seminars and training courses in Zambia very soon. Anyway, thank you very much. H.E. Mr. Godfrey Simasiku, Ambassador of Zambia

Thank you very much Ambassador. You have heard quite some perspective from Ambassador Nakamura so I would like to see if you have any contributions on the nature of international cooperation in science and technology towards man-power development, capacity building in general for the hardware involved in this type of approach. Please the floor is still open so that we define the areas and we know we are trying to accelerate development using science and technology. So what are the emphases we want to put in which areas. Building wealth, creating wealth in our countries because using that base at a grass root level higher up. Yes, please identify yourself.

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Mr. Naonobu Minato, Acting Director, IDRI, FASID Thank you very much. My name is Minato from International Development of Research Institute of FASID. FASID stands for Foundation for Advanced Study on International Development. We mainly focus on the policy oriented research to feedback to Japanese Official Development Assistance. And in the context of the international development, I think we have two common goals.

One is poverty reduction that�s related with MDGs. The other is economic growth. Our consensus is that,we can�t reduce poverty without economic growth. In general, in case of Africa, I think poor people tend to live in the rural area and tend to be farmers. I actually visited Africa more than 10 times. Then, I think the farmer produce farming products. They sell them in the domestic markets and the market prices are very low. They cannot get higher income. Still they continue to be the poor.

Now, I think one of the very important points is how they can export their products or how they can add some value to their products. So in this context, I think agro industry will be one of the most important and effective approach. But in case of agro- industry, farmers need a lot of elements such as technologies, science, skills or information.

Of course, farmers have some basic knowledge of these things. But, the technology or science that is directly related with agro-industry or establishing some industry that is very closely related to farming, are important. For example, recently, footware industry in Ethiopia has started to export the shoes to Europe. They use cow skin that is related with animal husbandry. The farmers can get the benefit from development of footware industry. This is just my personal comment. Thank you very much. H.E. Mr. Godfrey Simasiku, Ambassador of Zambia Thank you very much Mr. Minato. I would like us to coordinate the three ideas that have come in here. First we are talking about economic growth and the many development goals referred to reduce poverty levels by 50 percent by the year 2015. This is what we want to do. And we need to focus for example we know 70 percent of the population in most countries depend on agriculture as has been just mentioned. Now having very low incomes because of poor productivity, for example because of no appropriate technology to enhance their production. So let us take into account the nature that affects these people�s economic activities. Drought and floods. When we have so much water. SADC for example, Zambia has 40 percent of SADC waters. Why the shortage of food? So we want to address appropriately as we get along. Ok, so next contribution please. On these lines let�s see what technology level we can promote the small scale industry, the small-scale producer. Because the big commercial farmer�s way of dealing with this is outside really the need of science and technology for the levels like Ambassador Ngubane was mentioning, appropriate levels that we have at the grass root level. Do I see Zimbabwe hand there? Yes please Ambassador Comberback.

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H.E. Mr. Stuart Comberback, Ambassador of Zimbabwe I hadn�t actually put my hand up but thank you sir. Comberback from Zimbabwe. I think to carry on the theme perhaps, we mentioned the millennium goals that we have to try to attack poverty to use your term as well. And poverty is something which affects all of our people. If we look at our problems, the majority of people live in the rural area. Many of them are involved in agriculture, a lot of it is subsistence agriculture. They need assistance to graduate them up from subsistence level to make them produce perhaps not on a commercial level or as is known elsewhere in the world. But certainly to do better than they are doing now. And they need to learn skills. They need a certain amount of technology. It is supposed the term is appropriate technology but they certainly need some assistance to graduate themselves up the latter a little bit. But if you look at the other problems that afflict us, the need to improve agricultural methods, there is HIV-AIDS.

A lot of the assistance that is given to Africa to combat HIV-AIDS is palliative. It comes in the form of subsidized antiretroviral which are passed out. It comes in the form of programs to inhibit and to stop the passage of the virus HIV from mothers to infants. Of course all of this is extremely important. But, maybe more could be done. We know a lot about HIV-AIDS in Africa. We are the principle sufferers from it. Maybe more could be done in terms of research. If more emphasis was placed on that in an African context, rather than providing huge amounts of money to European and other drug manufacturers to subsidize the manufacture of antiretroviral and other palliatives which come in Africa as part of development assistance or as humanitarian relief. We must be grateful for that, but it�s not actually going to the core perhaps.

So agriculture, and agriculture is of course not just tilling the soil, its irrigation, it�s what to do with your produce once you�ve made it. We heard earlier on about JA downstairs standing for Japan Agriculture and that is really one of most incredible organizations that I have seen operating here on the ground in Japan. We�ve been around to quite a few of the prefectures and you find JA everywhere. They are incredible. This is the sort of thing, a lot of it isn�t high tech but it�s an area where maybe a transfer of some knowledge, a transfer of some technology could assist us. So I think if we look at some of those areas, why Africa is poor, where Africa is poor and we can think about appropriate technology that can be transferred and could certainly make the situation a lot easier on the ground. You gave me the floor I didn�t ask for, so I�m sorry I�ve been a bit rambling but there we are. H.E. Mr. Godfrey Simasiku, Ambassador of Zambia

Thank you very much Ambassador. Right, Ambassador Comberback and Ambassador Nakamura have mentioned the issue of HIV-AIDS. Right now every government is trying to put in its programs of manpower development programs on HIV-AIDS because it�s affecting our economies� productivity. A lot of highly trained people are dying and others lose man hours, because people are ailing, people have to go to funerals. There is nobody who has nobody dying of AIDS in their families. We say in Zambia, �You are either infected or affected.� So, I think the issue of HIV-AIDS, we would like this also to be taken care of in this level of cooperation with Japan so that the manpower that we are trying to develop can survive, can live its usefulness, can look forward to retirement, a normal retirement age. People today are not retiring. We

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are having people just die within two years of service�five years, ten years�all the way right up into Cabinet. There is nobody who is spared from this disease HIV-AIDS. So can we incorporate programs that will promote these issues seriously? And also there�s the question of environmental degradation that needs to be addressed. Deforestation is affecting a lot of resources in our countries, leading also to the drying up of water sources. So we are having droughts. Sometimes in other countries we are seeing landslides because trees were cut many years ago. So I think we should deal with this question before we move to the next one, because I think this is central to it all: manpower development, economic growth towards poverty reduction, farming products, and the agro-industries; people throwing away skins and hides. You need simple technologies to deal with this. Just a few days ago when we went to ANA hotel we saw the Mekong experience: people using all sorts of materials to produce very, very good crafts. In Zambia we have the infamous water hyacinth, weed which is a nuisance, and with cheap technology can he turned into some good products that could find their way in the developed world. So I think this is the consensus. Now let�s move on to the next question. Yes Ambassador Obame, Ambassador of Gabon. H.E. Mr. Jean Christian Obame, Ambassador of Gabon Thank you very much. In the context of a nature of cooperation between Japan and, we�ll say, Africa, I think that we can think in the line, of what is really needed to sustain growth. In Africa, what we need is infrastructure, social and economic infrastructure. We are talking about health. There can be no real development if there is no health, no infrastructure in the area of health and education. There can be no growth if there is no economic infrastructure, roads. IT cannot grow if we don�t have infrastructure in the area of energy. I think mentioning infrastructure as key for cooperation between Japan and Africa is most important. I think that Japan has an excess capacity in terms of technology. This excess capacity can now be exported to Africa. The companies dealing with infrastructure here in Japan, we want them to go to Africa and to promote what we are talking about here: real development.

And I would like to also say that many areas of corporations have already been identified. All these are not new. And priorities have also been identified. Now what is at stake here is, do we have adequate funding, adequate mechanisms for funding these priority areas. I think is the main question also here. We cannot talk only about the cooperation if the source of financing is not there. So I think that we will probably come to that later.

H.E. Mr. Godfrey Simasiku, Ambassador of Zambia

Thank you very much Ambassador. I think I would like to again pass this to gaimusho. Ambassador Obame is mentioning problems of sustainable growth, economic and

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social infrastructure, that there should be a transfer of excess capacity of development, of technology, of science in Japan to Africa; and the areas of energy, cities, roads, hospitals. So he�s correctly mentioning that many areas have already been identified as well as the priorities in the structures. He�s also mentioning adequate funding. Now the question I want to pose is that, there is doubling of ODA that has been announced, what is the focus of this doubling of ODA so that on record we�ll be able to incorporate it in the partnership of our countries and continents. Yes, please.

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H.E. Mr. Atsushi Hatakenaka, Senior Vice-President, JICA

Mr. Chairman. Before you pass the subject to the next one, I would like to say something. I am Hatakenaka, Vice President of JICA. I am very happy to be here; I am sorry I could not attend the meeting this morning. I used to be the Japanese Ambassador to South Africa until maybe five years ago. And I know something about South Africa, but I don�t know much about total Africa, the different places. But I have been dealing with all the business for many years. You are now discussing about the science technologies, how technology can support all the development.

JICA has changed the working style after we got the new President, Madam Ogata. It used to be that we approached development in Africa and other areas starting from what we can offer. Taking consideration of our own experiences and history, we start from what we can offer Africa. But we have changed our approach 180 degrees. We try to respond to the demands, �What do you need?� We like to get the information, so your opinion, your observations, what you need for development. Then we think of what we can offer. This is the new approach. Because we have a long history of transferring our technologies to developing countries we offered many technologies to counterparts in developing countries. But according to our experiences these counterparts, your people, have the knowledge and technology or something. But these kinds of technologies in many cases couldn�t be developed in other areas, other people. Some of the counterparts have the knowledge, but not beyond that. So, we think the most important thing is in your country. Please identify what you need, what kind of technologies and science you need for the development. Maybe it is depending on the situations. Somebody said agro-industries, textiles, or something. The most important thing I think, and JICA is thinking, is the commitment of the people and of the government. In Japanese history we can show many examples; our fathers, our grandfathers tried very hard for our own people. They tried to get the new technologies from outside Japan. But the most important thing is that they tried to use that technology for our own people. The commitment. We say that in the process, the most important thing is the ownership of the development. In the history we are telling the developing partners that self-help efforts are the most important thing. But we changed the wording: ownership of the people, ownership of the community, ownership of the government.

And we take a new approach; again the second one is that we are approaching the communities. In the past we were only approaching the government, but sometimes governments don�t know, I�m sorry to say, the conditions in rural areas; they just know the bureaucrats, the governments. But they don�t know really what the community needs. So we approach the communities. But not only the communities we have to talk to the governments�both sides. The government should take care of the systems, the mini-mini systems, or regulations or something to support the efforts of the community. So now we call it �bottom-up.� Normally we approach the development from the government only, but we start trying to approach both ways. And the point is the commitment of the people, of the community, and the commitment of the government is very important. We are putting the priorities in the rural development, education, and primary healthcare.

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In the past we just transferred the technology in these areas. But now we try to approach the community or areas as a whole. For instance, the primary health cares, we will build some say hospitals and clinics and provide the equipments. But not only that, send the experts there. We try to educate the people. The people should take care of themselves through this kind of technology or facilities. But normally in the past our approach is divided only to offer the technologies, just offer the clinics, and just offer the medical equipment. These three things aren�t really good enough. So we changed the approach. Just come to the community and what you need. Come to the government how the government can support this community. We provide many schemes from our sides. So the comprehensive approach, you may say so, not only one by one. Science technology can support the government. But not only technology can support the development. The most important thing is, I think, the commitment of the people and the commitment of the government. So JICA is now ready to take any kind of proposal from your people, from your government. But please find what you need, what your people demand. Then we�ll discuss a partnership to formalize what kind of program is most suitable. Please understand JICA�s approach has changed. And we hope through the TICAD process or an effort process�I don�t care what kind of process�we like to get this kind of request or ideas from your side. We are not ready to offer our ideas, we would like to listen to your ideas. Thank you very much. H.E. Mr. Godfrey Simasiku, Ambassador of Zambia

Thank you. What I�m going to do now is, I would like us to attempt to consolidate all items under number one up to 1.6 so that we will have gained on time. So that we will get to the conclusions later on because we have been debating this now for close to 40 minutes, 45 minutes in the next 5 minutes. So that we�ll be able to give time to the next part. So we can wind up this particular paper at, say, 3 o�clock. Now I was saying that to Gaimusho, maybe to answer those questions we�d posed. But, before doing that, the points that have been raised by Ambassador Hatakenaka, the Vice President of JICA, changing all the strategies from what we can offer to what the demand is. I think most countries might say this without contradicting any of our countries in Africa because there�s been a lot of cooperation on a number of areas. One of the areas that I think is helping the receiving countries to deal with aid is accountability. I think this is a component that has been emphasized.

And many countries now are going on track with accountability of donor aid that is coming to them. Through this accountability there are many processes involved, including the �bottom-up� approach. In the past you�ll have seen projects brought to the people, imposed upon the people. And then you find that they have no capacity to absorb that technology or the development brought to them because they were not involved in the first place. So today, what is important for grassroots and a lot of several organizations that are very, very active in development in the grassroot areas is that they are able now to say �Right, we need this type of development first and foremost.� Whether it�s a health center or whether it�s a school, or whether it�s some federal road.

We�ll give you an example in some communities, when the toilets were built for them without consulting them. Those toilets were not being used by the people for whom

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they were intended to. Because one, the siting of those places were in conflict of the cultural norms of that community. So people, for example, in our communities, they don�t want a father-in-law or son-in-law to see them enter a washroom. Because the door�the entrance�is facing everyone in the village. So it�s supposed to be situated in some place where still privacy is considered. So these are the areas where, when you involve the communities, consultation is very, very important. So I think the areas of identifying what technical support can be given to the grassroots is now very, very live.

For example, JBIC, through JICA, are going to the communities, living with the communities and are able to monitor what could be relevant. Cheap technology. Just slightly modified you find that it suits that particular community. So let us consider therefore the ownership aspect on commitment of the people. Communities really don�t even want the government to impose certain products on them. There are big fights going on in most of our countries. The communities will take you to task. So I think ownership is very, very important. Planning at micro level. So maybe you can consider that question I posed on the doubling of ODA, what is the thrust towards improving conditions.

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H.E. Mr. Yoichi Otabe, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Well thank you very much. After that very eloquent expose, or explanation, given by Ambassador Hatakenaka, I can hardly find any additional comments to make, but maybe I�ll mention two or three points.

First regarding the adequate funding mentioned by the Ambassador from Gabon, I don�t belong to the school of Jeffrey Sacks. That means that during the past three or four decades, the total volume of the offshore development aid extended to the African countries, not only from Japan but from the international community as a whole, and the total volume of actual European countries in Asia, the volume of ODA extended to the African countries was much bigger. That�s one point. So it�s not only a question of money. Rather, it�s the question of governance. Governance is quite deeply linked to the ownership. And the governance should be applied at all levels. Not only in developing countries, but also in developed countries as well. As for the doubling of ODA to the African countries within three years, the commitment made by Prime Minister Koizumi last year, well, as Ambassador Hatakenaka stressed, we will listen to the views of the African countries based on their ownership, but the area where we would like to put the priority would be the community building as Ambassador Hatakenaka rightly pointed out.

As I have stated, at the outset of this afternoon session, there can be no one fit-for-all approach. So the emphasis will not be identical to each of the African countries; it will be tailored to the circumstances of each African country. And there was some discussion about the possibility of Japans cooperation to enhance the productivity of the agricultural sector, you may have heard that prior to the Hong Kong WTO ministerial meeting last December, this government announced a new package of assistance. Not only focusing on the agriculture sector, but that package also offers three pillars. The first pillar is that we will cooperate with countries in Africa and other countries of the developing world to increase the productivity. Second point is after having the increased productivity there has to be some market. That means we have to make some works to link the producers to the market. This is the aspect of how we can sell the product. Finally, we need somebody to purchase the final product. This is the third stage of this chain, the purchase aspect. For this purpose we have announced a system regarding duty free and quota free for those products coming from over sea. And there was some mention of the excess capacity on the part of the Japanese business so there should be some room for Japanese investment to be more active in the African continent.

Well, I�m not sure Japanese business has excess capacity at the junction�I do hope so, but I�m not sure�but in order for Japanese business to be more active in penetrating into the African market, there should be some conditions to be met. And I think Mr. Nakano has pointed out some of the important steps to be taken by the African countries to attract the Japanese investment because, anyway, business is business. So unless you are sure they can carry out their activities in a very transparent and predictable manner, I don�t think any of the Japanese business will go out of this country, not only for Africa but for any other country in the world.

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I think I�ll stop here. Thank you. H.E. Mr. Godfrey Simasiku, Ambassador of Zambia

Thank you very much Ambassador. Now, like I mentioned, we will consolidate items 1.1 to 1.6, but as we do so, I would like to pose a question to the African diplomatic core to consider what they perceive as short term and long term goals for international cooperation in science and technology between Japan the African countries. So can we hear from you what you see as short term and long term in a few minutes? And then we move on to the other business.

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H.E. Dr. Ben Ngubane, Ambassador of South Africa Well I think the short term must be to enable our countries to make use of this opportunity offered by Japan for instance the access of FCD products, agricultural goods and so on, to the Japanese market. And hopefully, to the markets of other developed countries. But to do that we have to provide sustainable trade. By sustainable trade I mean crops, fruit, and all those things that are consumable in a way that is sustainable in the markets where we want to sell. The kind of pest management applied to our vegetables, to our food, to our fruit, the type of dyes used in making our textiles, the types of feed our cattle get. So I�m saying short term: let us try and get Japan to help our countries, the less developed countries to make use of this opportunity to produce in a sustainable way. Because even if this is offered, if it found that sanitary conditions are not met, those products will not get into the Japanese market.

In the long term, quite clearly, technological capability of any country, of any nation, depends on education. So assistance with education programs, supporting the teaching of mathematics and science in our school, which has been the case with the Mpumalanga, the Mpumalanga Secondary Science Initiative, for which the South African Provincial Minister was here, I think is the model example of how JICA and the government of Japan can work with developing countries. Thank you very much.

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H.E. Mr. Godfrey Simasiku, Ambassador of Zambia Thank you very much. Any contribution? Gabon, Ambassador? Thank you very much Ambassador H.E. Mr. Jean Christian Obame, Ambassador of Gabon To answer briefly your question, I think that in the short term, what we need to do, is work on the gap, the information gap, that really exists between Japan and Africa in terms of knowing each other better, in term of knowing the needs in Africa, the potentialities in Africa, and also knowing better the market here in Japan. There is a gap, a gap that I think on the short term we really need to cover. We know that some initiative has been taken to launch a website on �African countries, I have visited� one of these websites, but I didn�t see it very appealing or very informative. I think that is something we have to do on the short term: information. But on the other area, I think that it will be good, as Ambassador said, to work on a partnership on education. I think this is key. To see the kind of technologies that we can master and transfer to Africa; building on the experience of Japan. The first thing is that I think through JBIC there is already a framework of preparation that we have seen this morning. This framework needs to be well known by our institution in Africa, by our businessman, so that we can really promote the joint venture between Japanese companies and African companies with adequate funding, not only for ODA, and also funding for promoting loan in business communities and so forth.

And also, what is very important and what was missing I think a little bit in the presentation this morning by JBIC is how to guarantee all sorts of loans. At a certain point, I think that a kind of institution to guarantee investment in Africa was mention in the framework of JBIC this time I didn�t hear about it. I think that something was supposed to be done with African Development Bank. I think it�s good that we work on something like that. Thank you very much.

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H.E. Mr. Godfrey Simasiku, Ambassador of Zambia

Thank you. Another contribution on those important questions? Botswana? And also Mr. Naidoo? H.E. Mr. Oscar Motswagae, Ambassador of Botswana

Mr. Chairman, I think we have had very little discussion on the policy question. Support for policy development. This morning Mr. Nishigahiro spoke at length, and I think a very interesting presentation on what Japan has and what Japan is doing to focus on the question of advancement in the science and technology area. In the policy area, the structure that have been set up in the cabinet, the structure that have been set up to keep up with the private sector and the like. I must confess that, you know, in my country we woke up very late to the importance of science and technology for development. It was only I think three or for years ago that we set up a Ministry responsible for science and technology, and we are still at the policy development level.

Mr. Naidoo, you spoke about what is happening within the structures of SADEC. And Petronas is participating the ongoing discussions and deliberations to develop policy and plans of action at the regional level. But I must confess, even at the national level, I think as individual countries we still need a lot of support in the policy framework, trying to develop clearly defined policies that can take us from point A to point B. And I think it�s one other area which we may want to look further into and see how we can develop cooperation and partnership with Japan in the area of policy development, particularly with the structures that Mr. Nishigahiro spoke about. I don�t know whether he would not want to comment and maybe speak about what he thinks. I think the presentation by Mr. Hatakenaka was very good and in fact I think it�s important that our Japanese friends also speak about what we should do as African countries ourselves.

We tend to be pointing a finger at them and saying that maybe they could do more to help us. But I think that it is important that you also point out to us what we are doing and what we can do to improve on what we have now. Thank you very much. H.E. Mr. Godfrey Simasiku, Ambassador of Zambia Right. You heard the Ambassadors there also talking and commenting on what Nishigahiro-san mentioned this morning. Now the issue of the Japanese market. I think the very, very important lessons that we are learning by our presence in Japan, for example, the beef issue with the United States. If you are not in Japan, you will not understand how this works, what�s the cause, what dimensions. Because I know, for example, we had some accident unfortunately in the Mori building and a little child was crushed; all the revolving doors in Japan were halted. This is the way things are done. The Americans were trying to put pressure, but the Japanese are saying, until the problem is solved. So while our people are adapting to the Japanese market, I think we have also to create this awareness in our own people, to stick to very high standards, especially when it comes to food products. Because it�s not taken to chance. Here we have seen products, even from Japanese farms, withdrawn from the market, from the shelves, from the freezers.

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So if it was done to my country, maybe we would assume it�s discrimination, but this is the reality on the ground. So the issue of getting quality items that Ambassador Ngubane alluded to come again to the Japanese offer to help us produce, market, and sell these products. So I think this partnership must involve also our backyards to be ready to accept this line of development. Because Japan can offer the technology, as it has been correctly mentioned, if we have policies in our institutions. Through this forum we�ll try again. Fortunately we are having people in here from our institutions, we are having the AU people coming in, we�re happy to send the correct signals about role of science and technology.

I mentioned about the plane which is to take off. It can only take off with highly trained personnel who are taught to fly this whole big plane. So we would like therefore to say the policy structures in government and the levels of science and technology have to be enhanced. Because like we noticed, in most countries science and technology minister is the most junior minister in the national administration. So really, how are we going to improve our scientific organizations, research, et cetera, by coming up with ideas, but they�re stifled because of lack of funding, because it�s not a priority. I think it�s time to prioritize these also, so that we can also match with the level of cooperation we are foreseeing, that we are asking for. Now, the issue of joint ventures that has been raised. Ambassador of Zimbabwe?

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H.E. Mr. Stuart Comberback, Ambassador of Zimbabwe Just one or two more items to add into the pot. We are sitting around the fireside and adding lots of things into the pot. The access has been granted to the Japanese for goods and products coming from LDCs (Less Developing Countries), we think this is an extremely positive development and really needs to be applauded. And I think it will make, as we have heard about the different aspects of the program, a huge difference over a period of time. I think what we�we were discussing this amongst ourselves the other day as African Ambassadors�and the feeling there, perhaps just to share it with colleagues here, was that the criteria by which a country, a developing country, is really, if I can use the word, controversial. It�s probably not the right term, but there are question marks about it. The difference in many cases between the least developed country and a developing country in terms of its economy, in terms of its ability to produce, in terms of its ability to borrow, and in terms of its economic development, the difference is sometimes not so great. Our request or our proposal or our hope would be, rather like the Americans did under their Goa Act, which was open to all developing countries in Africa, least developed and developing. Although there were some nuances, there were some differences in the way the goods and products coming from an LDC into the American market and goods and products coming from a developing country, there were some differences as to how those were treated. But not huge differences. And Goa has applied in Africa to textile sector, the footwear sector, the leather sector, has been extremely, extremely beneficial. And perhaps its something our friends in Japan could look at as well. Alright we start with LDCs but the size of the Japanese economy, I think it could withstand the onslaught from developing countries as well, not only LDCs in Africa, but developing countries. A second thing, completely unrelated to that, education, and the need for us to concentrate on education in Africa. I was recently down at Oita, at APU (Asia Pacific University) last year, fantastic campus with tremendous ideas on assisting developing countries in education. New campuses, new disciplines are going to be launched this year and over the next couple of years, many of them of great importance to developing countries. Tourism. Multimedia enterprises. These kinds of things are extremely important to us. And again, as the Japanese authorities look at how to deploy these increased funds coming on ODA, and as we look at helping Africa on education, and as we look at teaching Africans, opening Japanese experience to them in all of these very, very important fields, perhaps this is one area where there could be more African students coming now to APU. Perhaps that could be a deliberate policy to try out, and adds another A to the title, �AAPU,� so it would become �Africa Asia Pacific University.� A final thing: we�re looking at TICAD. And we�re looking forward to TICAD 4 coming in 2008. I remember very clearly, as do all my colleagues from TICAD 3, when as part of the process of promoting closer ties, closer understanding, obviously closer understanding between Japan and Africa, quite a bid was made from the African side that there should be some kind of structure put in place, some kind of mechanism to allow for closer liaison between Africa and Japan, and of course the other TICAD partners as well. In between the various TICAD meetings. Prime Minister Koizumi himself spoke about the need to institutionalize TICAD. And this is

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something, I think if we�re talking about TICAD becoming more and more of a buttress and a support mechanism for NEPAD, NEPAD is solid, it�s on the ground, it�s moving, we need that kind of support. I think the timing could be right to give this question of institutionalizing TICAD a little bit more consideration, see if we can�t carry it a little bit further forward, in time, maybe for something positive for TICAD. Thank you very much. H.E. Mr. Godfrey Simasiku, Ambassador of Zambia

As we now wind up this particular program, I think it�s important now that what we have been discussing fits into the framework of what we want to see. The vision, short term and long term. Therefore, what has been debated here can also apply on levels of university to university partnership, university to research institutions, business to business, business partnerships, et cetera, all these I think they follow the same route. It�s just other sectors that are involved in various areas of human endeavors, and sometimes we use that description. So I would like to thank you distinguished participants, really for your very wide knowledge and depth of the ideas that have been debated here. And I must admit this is one of the most difficult moderations that I�ve had to do. Science and technology�imagine, I�m not a scientist of any kind. So to try and comment on what scientists say, think, plan, and do is not the easiest of things to do. But we are grateful for your contributions this morning and this afternoon. I think we have a dual role to play in this particular side of science and technology: to improve the quality of life of our people, to increase economic cooperation, to also increase economic growth, to reduce poverty in our countries. I thank you.

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H.E. Mr. Daniel Antonio, Ambassador of Mozambique � Question & Answer

First of all I want congratulate the speakers of this morning and afternoon sessions for their rich and important presentations. Secondly, I would like to thank the Embassy of South Africa for this initiative and also for the leading role in promoting science and technology in Africa as a whole. My role was to ask if there are some questions to be put to those presenters of this morning and this afternoon. I believe there are many questions to be answered, especially after the presentations from JBIC, JICA and the Gaimusho. We were left with some questions or maybe clarifications to be asked for. Anybody with comments, questions, or observations to make, please, the floor is open. H.E. Dr. Ben Ngubane, Ambassador of South Africa

Thank you Chairperson, Excellencies, colleagues, and the participants, and our visitors here today. I would like Mr. Naidoo to talk about the technology for development programs in South Africa which were formulated and run by the Department of Science and technology, because I think it will give added emphasis to us pursuing science and technology for development. While we still need to have our universities and research institutions doing cutting edge research in science for competitiveness, the people need very urgently, assistance with simple projects that they survive on. Thank you very much. Mr. Dhesigen Naidoo, Deputy Director-General, Department of Science and Technology

Thank you Ambassador, and thank you Ambassador for that question. It�s particularly relevant because there�s an automatic association when you talk science and technology to high tech, to cutting edge research, to basic research, to answering fundamental questions, and competitiveness. Ambassador Ngubane is absolutely right; unless you, at the same time, are addressing the needs very directly of the poor you system is going to lose. What we�ve done in South Africa, and there are many countries in the world that do this kind of work, is to organize for three types of intervention. One is to develop a level of knowledge that assists people with a subsistence level of activity. So for example, bee keeping, mushroom farming, or the development of crafts, to value-add. Ambassador talked about his water hyacinth weed problem, for example, by taking water hyacinth to the next level of productivity so that you can actually have some kind of material product that can sustain livelihoods out of that, is one leg. The second leg, and this falls under the banner of a program we call Tshumisano in South Africa, is where you start developing technology based on enterprise level into a commercial productivity level. And Tshumisano is about very specifically developing very small and medium and micro enterprises with a technology base. So this is about assisting people to come on board into the commercial sphere into the mainstream economy with a technology idea that they can develop specific products on. And usually that�s associated with knowledge that already exists. So by taking the knowledge that�s already out there and converting that into a prototype, and sometimes a prototype already exists, and you can convert that into production. And

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needless to say, some of this involves science and technology, but most of it is around developing business and business support systems. The third, and we put this under a program we call GODISA, is where you actually have incubation, where you take an idea and you incubate that idea until you get the technology, and then you take that technology into a prototype and then out into the market. And all of these are directed to what we call, in South Africa, the second economy, the economy that deals with poverty eradication and the improvement of quality of life as its basic goal. But needless to say, if you do this correctly, you go into the first economy. You can actually start creating competitive industries in their own right. So these are some of the fundamental ways in which science and technology intervention can help people get to the point of sustainable livelihoods and some of those people even to the point of being fully-fledged entrepreneurs and business people. I can also add that as a percentage of the budget, it doesn�t take a lot. But what it does, and this is really, really critical, is to have the right kind of partnership. And there are two kinds of partnerships here. One, in most cases your Science and Technology Department is not going to be your lead department. That you�re probably going to be looking at an agriculture kind of project, or the kind of project that your Trade and Industry Ministry would be the lead ministry. So getting that partnership right, right at the beginning, is critical, otherwise you have turf issues, you don�t have the right kind of mobility where you get passed an idea to commercialization to support.

The second is that essentially you�re creating an enhanced private sector. So if it�s possible to bring a private sector partner somewhere in that chain, that�s what ensures sustainability of those kinds of projects. And for a science and technology intervention there isn�t too much you need to do: you need to do the pilot, you need to replicate it, and that in itself becomes a case study and a model for a whole range of other people to follow. Thank you.

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H.E. Mr. Daniel Antonio, Ambassador of Mozambique

Thank you, once again, Mr. Naidoo for these comments. Any more comments? Your Excellency, you have the floor. H.E. Mr. Oscar Motswagae, Ambassador of Botswana

Can I just ask Mr. Naidoo, maybe for a comment? We as Embassies of Southern African countries have set up what we call the South African Science and technology Community, and our hope is to develop programs that will strengthen partnership between our region and Japan in the area of science and technology. But I must say, quite often it is difficult to work from the distance of Japan with our people on the ground in Southern Africa. Mr. Naidoo this morning spoke about the programs that are being developed for SADC, and I believe what it means is that we as the now SASTeC should be working with people like Mr. Naidoo, working with the SADC, working with our countries to develop a partnership with Japan in the implementation of the programs and the projects that we come up with. But, as I said, it is quite often difficult to work and get our people on the ground to support our efforts at this side.

So you know I think maybe the case of South Africa is better because they already have an office in Japan that is responsible for science and technology. But in a lot of our Embassies, it is really the diplomatic personnel, and we have very little direct links with our Ministries responsible. So I just wonder, in your view, how do you think we can make SASTeC a success? How do we link up people with our people on the ground so that what we are doing here doesn�t just become a talk show? We speak about science and technology today, and then tomorrow nothing comes of it.

Our hope is that we can develop concrete programs that will develop and strengthen partnership with Japan in the area of science and technology but we have problems of linkages and working out concrete programs with our people, as I said. So I just want you to comment on how you think we can make this work, how we can get good support from our capitols from the region. Mr. Naidoo, thanks for that question. I�m not going to respond to it because you�ve designed your program very well, and you�ve also chosen the people in your program very well, because the Ambassador from Zimbabwe, in his closing remarks, is going to offer a very specific proposal to deal with what you�re talking about. H.E. Dr. Ben Ngubane, Ambassador of South Africa Well, I think it�s such an important question that was raised by the Chairperson of SADC, Ambassadors that we must attempt to answer it, however deficient. It�s going to be very important for South Africa�s Minister of Foreign Affairs to input this in the Council of Ministers of SADC as an initiative that directly works with TICAD in Japan by the SADC Ambassadors. Once the Ministers� Council of SADC adopts this as one of their mechanisms to work more closely with SADC, it�s going to be more possible for us as SASTeC to work with MEXT, to work with Foreign Affairs, to work with METI, on these very issues. And of course as the JICA Senior Vice-President indicated, JICA, is open to hearing what hear as countries of SADC want to see happen. But as you say, we need to link back with our Ministries. However, the

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linking back is not going to be effective in individual Ministries. I think within institutions like the SADC Secretariat, mediating among the Ministries in our countries and adopting programs that are part of the council of ministers and of SADC, we will have sufficient authority, this side, to be able to make effective representations to JICA, to JBIC, and to all the other structures in this country. Thank you. Mr. Koichi Hagiwara, Industrial Development Officer, UNIDO Thank you very much Mr. Chairman. In the year 2008, there will be the TICAD, and it is going to be, as everybody knows, the fourth conference. This means there is some kind of desperate wish from both African parties as well as from Japanese end that we need some kind of concrete, tangible output. And, personally speaking, for the past three TICAD, science and technology has probably not been very much highlighted yet. I personally feel that we have a very nice platform towards the goal to create very tangible output. And then, I would say this is about time for us to create some kind of task force team to table a concrete proposal. Or it could be based on one-village-one-product, or technology transfer program, or CDM, or whatever it is we definitely need some kind of very concrete proposal as soon as possible. H.E. Mr. Daniel Antonio, Ambassador of Mozambique Well, that concludes our chapter of questions and answers. Thank you very much. And I�ll give the floor to Mr. Lingela.

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Mr. Vuyani Lingela, Counsellor: Science and Technology, South African Embassy Thank you very much, His Excellency. This was really stimulating, and your facilitation was tremendous, we appreciate it. Now we need just some last words to conclude our workshop with the Ambassador of Zimbabwe and the remarks to seal the whole SASTeC workshop. Ambassador, thank you. H.E. Mr. Stuart Comberback, Ambassador of Zimbabwe � Closing Remarks

Thank you. Let me just start by apologizing in advance to the ladies in the interpretation booth back there because what I�m about to say bears absolutely no resemblance to the text I gave you earlier on, but maybe you could expect that since it�s very difficult to write closing comments before the workshop starts. So I do apologize in advance. Excellencies, distinguished participants, ladies and gentlemen, we come thus to the end of a very fascinating and educative day. It�s always difficult after a workshop like this to draw any neat conclusions�so many ideas and thoughts and suggestions have come forward. And so much information has been imparted that all one can do, really, is to try and distill the essence, the main themes out of all that has come forward and to put it into some kind of order. Let me start, if I may, by looking at it from the African perspective. We�ve listened to a number of very distinguished speakers today who�ve highlighted the crucial importance of science and technology, research and development, within the broad perspective of growth within our countries. Considerable emphasis has been placed today on the challenges facing Africa in this regard, and on the critical need for Africa to far mar itself, using its own human and material resources, and indeed it�s own indigenous knowledge, to address these challenges. Mr. Naidoo�s presentation gave us a most encouraging perspective of Africa�s intensifying efforts to mobilize and organize itself in a more concerted, more focused, and more sustainable manner, to do exactly that: to address and overcome these challenges. Much was said about the need for Africa to have ownership, and therefore full commitment to, it�s growth and development programs. Well, we�ve heard about AMCOST and NEPAD�s consolidated plan of action for science and technology and of the multiple opportunities this plan now provides for Africa to work more closely together and with its international partners; to harmonize it�s efforts in the field of science and technology; to add value to existing S&T efforts; to avoid duplication of those efforts; to develop regional hubs, or centers of excellence; and to network those hubs; and to ensure that those centers are adequately funded and supported. The presentations made by our most distinguished trio of speakers from Japan, the three Directors Generals, were extremely enlightening and very, very useful. Japan, as one of the world�s most technologically advanced countries, with vast experience and knowledge in all aspects, of S&T, research, and development, has the capacity, and has been confirmed once again here today, it has the willingness to assist African in the ongoing battle against underdevelopment and poverty. I think we�ve all been

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encouraged and impressed by the details of the EPSA initiative, with its enhanced focus on social and economic infrastructure, and, very important for many African countries, with the apparent new flexibility with regard to those countries which fall under the HIPIC umbrella.

Equally as interesting are the creative new forms of ODA funding, such as the poverty reduction support credit system we heard about in relation to Tanzania, very, very interesting. We�ve heard today also of different ways in which Japan and Africa might forge a closer strategic partnership in science and technology with the specific objectives of enhancing economic development across our continent and of adding yet a further layer to already existing structures of economic cooperation. I think it�s clear that cooperation in the S&T field is absolutely essential if, as part of a global community, Africa is to achieve its full potential contribution to the search for global solutions, to issues of global concern. Japan has had a unique experience in helping the development and the advancement of many nations in Asia. We can learn from those experiences and, indeed, from Japan�s own successes and its failures, as it�s traveled it�s own path�amazing path, actually�towards advanced industrialization and the optimum deployment of S&T, of it�s own S&T expertise. Similarly, there�s much to learn from Japan�s experiences with regard to the development of a facilitative and effective policy framework for S&T. Director General Nishigahiro�s explanation of how the various S&T institutions in Japan coexist and cooperate not only within Japan, but externally on the international stage, I think holds many lessons for us in Africa. Again, we can learn. Both the Director Generals spoke about TICAD and S&T cooperation between Japan and Africa, and Director General Nishigahiro spoke of the G8 in a similar context. Both pointed out that Japan will include science and technology to the agenda of the G8 summit and to TICAD 4 in 2008. As SADC and African Ambassadors here on the ground in Japan, I think we have to take the lead from what Mr. Naidoo said in his presentation his wish for Japan within both the G8 framework on S&T and also within TICAD to speak a little louder for S&T to take a higher profile within the broad TICAD framework; and for Japan on its own and in concert with its G8 partners to look into new ways of boosting S&T cooperating with Africa. The trilateral project approached proposed by Mr. Naidoo is one that need to be examined more closely. I think it�s extremely interesting and holds a lot of potential for future cooperation between Japan and African countries within the TICAD process and more broadly, within the G8 process as well, G8 focus on Africa. And I think all of this especially at a time and within a context where Japanese ODA towards Africa is said to increase. I think as SADC and as African Ambassadors, our work, certainly in this field, is clear-cut. And I would ask Ambassador Otabe through his representative here and his team to plan to meet with us to take discussions on this issue a little further and to see where we might be able to take it within the TICAD framework. The discussion sessions chaired by the Ambassador of Zambia and Ambassador of Mozambique focused on other important aspects of the overall equation: identifying priorities for S&T cooperation between African and Japan, and how having taking these first steps we sustain a solid, effective program of cooperation between Africa and Japan, I think the point raised by the Ambassador of Botswana. On the question

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of priorities, Africa faces many challenges, and has very limited resources with which to address them. The tendency has been for African countries to try to spread their efforts over too wide a range or too wide a series of challenges and always with too few resources. The results, inevitably, have been disappointing and often ineffectual.

The NEPAD consolidated plan on S&T is changing that approach and provides a clear, continentally agreed-upon framework for action, facilitating a collective approach to common challenges and, most importantly, identifying agreed-upon areas of priority interest and concern on the basis of the most pressing challenges facing Africa�food security, HIV-AIDS, the lack of modern infrastructure, the debilitating loss of skills�all of which contribute to the crushing burden of poverty which weighs upon all of our countries. Those S&T priority area is surely, in the fields of agriculture, health and in medicine, renewable energy, engineering, and the various social sciences, including of course education itself. On the question of how do we sustain S&T cooperation between Japan and Southern Africa and more broadly with Africa, as already mentioned we have NEPAD and we have the consolidated plan for action. We also have TICAD, and it�s agreed status as a buttress or support mechanism for NEPAD. Already, that provides a framework within which we can operate. I mentioned the need for us as Ambassadors to engage with Gaimusho, with JICA, and with others to try within Japan�s broad ODA thrust to give more emphasis and profile and, of course, more funds to S&T cooperation with Africa.

Clearly within this equation it is the schools, the Universities, and science and technology institutions within Africa and within Japan which hold the key to a successful and sustainable program of interaction and cooperation. Solid links between and amongst them must be forged, closer cooperation and more frequent exchanges developed, experiences and knowledge must be shared. The private sector, as well, has a major role to play in this scenario. We�ve taken note of Ambassador Otabe�s concerns with regards to protection of intellectual property rights as a requirement, not only to facilitate the flow of FDI into our countries, but also as a requirement for a full and open exchange of S&T research, data, and material. Our partners need to have that confidence, and I think it was most reassuring to hear from Mr. Naidoo that we are doing something about this at the level of SADC.

So as we end our workshop, several key facts are evident. One, our world is changing at a rapid pace, driven largely by science and technology advances. There can be little, if any, development without S&T. Indeed, the most advanced countries are those which have invested the most in S&T. Africa is lagging way behind in the S&T field; inadequate systems, inadequate resources, and wrong priorities have meant that S&T innovations, even those which have been developed within Africa itself, have not reached, in most cases, those who need them most. NEPAD�s consolidated plan of action for S&T is now in place and provides a framework for closer cooperation and coordination in science and technology between and amongst African nations themselves and between Africa and its development cooperation partners. Japan is a world leader in S&T development and research. Japan has already demonstrated its commitment to assisting Africa through the TICAD process. TICAD, we all agree, serves now as a pillar of support for NEPAD. There is thus tremendous scope for the

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development of a cooperation program between Japan and Africa to boost S&T capacity across a wide range of priority areas within African countries.

I�ve mentioned those areas already� agriculture, health and medicine, engineering, social service sector�these should certainly feature amongst those priority areas. There are others, of course, but those, I think certainly form part of the discussion we had, those seem to emerge as being on the collective thought process here. Schools and universities and S&T institutions, and of course the private sector, both here in Japan and in African countries are the instruments by which such a program can be developed and sustained. As SADC and Japan, we�ve taken these first steps toward the development of such a program. It�s important that as SADC and Japan we follow up on today�s meeting, and that we pursue together the ideas and proposals which have emerged and taking them further, and ideally, towards a concrete outcome. On behalf of my SADC colleagues, I can assure of our commitment to doing our utmost to achieve that object in the months and the years ahead. As a result of the question I think the Ambassador of Botswana raised and Mr. Naidoo dodged and the Ambassador of South Africa answered, let me put forward a proposal here. It hasn�t been discussed, but I think we need to end the meeting on a very positive note, I think we need to end it on a concrete note, and I think we need to chart out for ourselves the way ahead. The proposal is this, really, that on the basis of what we�ve discussed, on the basis of what we�ve heard today, and I think on the basis of our own context with the Japanese authorities and the various institutions with which we interact here in Japan�I think we need to come up with a SASTeC/Japan paper on cooperation in science and technology, a broad paper which presents our thoughts, our proposals on how we, SADC countries, can cooperate with Japan.

The vice president of JICA who�s again saying there�s been a change in policy at JICA. That now instead of Japan coming and saying, �This is what we�re going to do,� they want to hear from Africa saying, �This is what we�d like you to do.� And I think certainly, in this field of science and technology, our own little community here, the SASTeC community, and what we�ve done today, and if we distill down what come out of the meeting today, I think we can come up with a good paper which can maybe serve as a basis for discussion with the Japanese on how we can concretely take this process forward. So we need to come up with that paper, and as a suggestion we could do that during the month of March, I think we should give ourselves, perhaps, until the end of March to come up with a first draft. That we can do here on the basis of a drafting team which can be put together between and amongst your offices from the various embassies, the SADC embassies here.

And we can discuss the composition of that later; I think we just want to look at the broad concept now. We come up with a paper, and that is then sent back to our capitals, and it can be sent back to the SADC secretariat as well. We ask our capitals, the relevant authorities in our capitals for input, and then they send it back to us here. So we now have a broader document which includes comments and input from our capitals. And on the basis of that, we then meet here again as SASTeC, perhaps in June we meet here, to finalize that paper, which will now have the input from headquarters, it�ll have the input hopefully from the SADC Secretariat, and it may have even some input from the Council of Ministers or Ministers responsible for science and technology meeting together. This is something which we�d have to look

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at, and of course it would be ideal if we could do that. And I think this provides a concrete outcome from today, it allows us to move forward, and it allows us to keep the pressure up a little bit, if I could put it that way. So I put that before you as a proposed way forward, as a concrete outcome of today, and we can finalize details on it perhaps a little bit later. It remains for me then really to thank the organizers, and all the participants of today�s workshop, and of course all those who�ve attended and have contributed to the debate and the discussions. A special word of thanks to our keynote speaker, Mr. Nakano from JBIC, and to the Directors General Nishigahiro and Otabe, we of course appreciated their time very much and their most valuable contributions to our discussion. I think a very sincere thanks to Mr. Naidoo as well, who traveled long way to be here with us today; I think, Ambassador Ngubane, you should let him stay for a little bit longer. And finally, a very special word of thanks to the Ambassador of South Africa and his team who�ve been so instrumental in setting up SASTeC and to get it running. And now, of course, it�s up to us all to keep it running and to make it successful. Thank you very much indeed. Thank you. Mr. Vuyani Lingela, Counsellor: Science and Technology, South African Embassy I think on this note I would like to thank Ambassador for the excellent conclusion and the way forward for us all. Thank you very much; we look forward to meeting again later.

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Contact Information: SASTeC Secretariat Vuyani Lingela Counsellor: Science and Technology South African Embassy in Japan Tel: +81 3 3265 3366 Fax: +81 3 3265 1108 Email: Lingela@rsatk.com http://www.science-technology.jp