At the Opening Session of the 11th Annual Bilateral Policy Dialogue on Economic Cooperation at MOFED on 25 July, 2013

Your Excellency Ato Ahmed Shide, State Minister of Finance and Economic Development,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Endemen Aderachehu!

It is a great pleasure for me to attend the Annual Bilateral Policy Dialogue on Economic Cooperation between our two governments.  This is the 11th round since we started these exchanges.  Following Your Excellency’s remarks, I would like to say a few words on behalf of the Japanese delegation at this opening session.

First of all, I would like to express my sincere appreciation to MOFED for the warm welcome extended to us and for all the arrangements made for today’s meeting.

Excellency, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I attach importance to this policy dialogue as this provides a useful framework for us to overview Japan’s ODA policy and projects in Ethiopia as well as to know Ethiopia’s needs for its development.

With the adoption of the GTP by Ethiopia in 2010, we reviewed Japan’s ODA policy and programs in Ethiopia and announced a new policy guideline in April last year.  In short, Japan has aligned its ODA policy with the GTP and will continue to support Ethiopia in implementing the GTP through ODA.  In so doing, Japan will place priority on food security and industrial development as pillars of the Plan.  Therefore, we are anxious to know your preliminary assessment of the third year’s performance of the implementation of the GTP, and also your guidelines for formulating the next five year development plan.

In line with those major goals, four priority areas are specified in Japan’s ODA policy toward Ethiopia. The first is support for agricultural and rural development.  Japan is committed to the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition as a G8 member.  Our priority in this context is placed on smallholder farmers.  We have helped, and will continue to help them increase productivity, expand farmland and improve livelihoods through technical cooperation in such areas as promoting quality seeds, improving agricultural marketing systems, irrigation development and so on.

The second priority area is support for industrial development.  It is already four years since Japan started a policy dialogue with Ethiopia for industrial development to share our knowledge and experience of industrialization in East Asia.  The fourth policy dialogue in the second phase will take place in Addis Ababa next week, focusing on foreign direct investment.  Our kaizen project, initiated in 2009, is also in its fifth year, and the scope of the project has been scaled up.  The kaizen way of thinking and methods are now widely shared in various sectors and also on a nationwide scale.  The side event on kaizen held here on the margins of the TICADV Ministerial Preparatory Meeting in March was very successful, impressing other African delegates.

The third priority area is support for improving economic and social infrastructure, which is crucial for the development of both agriculture and industry.  Japan is now working on the road improvement project between Dejen and DebreMarkos on Trunk Road #3 and also on the replacement of the Awash Bridge on Trunk Road #1.  Both of these routes are important trade and industrial corridors.  In the power sector, a joint feasibility study with the World Bank is now underway on geothermal energy in Alto Langano.

In this context, let me touch upon Ethiopia’s request for concessional yen loans.  Tokyo’s position is clear, as our Prime Minister Abe explained to Prime Minister Hailemariam in Yokohama.  Japan considers the geothermal power generation project in Alto Langano as the first candidate for such a loan, pending the outcome of the feasibility study.  I assure you that we are ready to work with you to facilitate this process.

The fourth priority area is support for human resource development, education in a broader sense, which is also critical for sustainable development.  In consultation with the Ethiopian Government, we are working on the construction of primary and secondary schools in the Amhara Region and the SNNPRS, while having completed similar projects in Addis Ababa and the Oromia Region.  We will continue these efforts so that Ethiopia will be able to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.  The other priority project is science and math education in secondary schools.  In order to improve the quality of education in science and math, our JOCV members are actively engaged, and a technical cooperation program is underway for training teachers and administrators in regional education bureaux.

Excellency, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Japan’s ODA in Ethiopia fluctuates year by year as we earmark budgetary appropriations for specific projects.  Yet, if we take a look at the trend, I am pleased to say that our ODA to Ethiopia has been increasing steadily.  In particular, technical cooperation increased from 1.3 billion JPY (13 million USD) in JFY2008 to 2.6 billion JPY (30 million USD) in JFY2010 and to 3.6 billion JPY (45 million USD) in JFY2011.  Impressively enough, it nearly tripled during the three years.  Technical cooperation aims to share knowledge and expertise with Ethiopian counterparts and therefore contributes to Ethiopia’s development through capacity building.

Now, let me touch upon TICADV, which was held in Yokohama in June.  First, I am grateful to His Excellency Prime Minister Hailemariam for the role he played to make TICADV a great success.

At the TICADV opening session, Prime Minister Abe announced Japan’s new support package for Africa, amounting to 32 billion USD for the coming five years, which includes 14 billion USD in ODA.  The major focus of this package is to support improving the business environment in Africa by facilitating infrastructure and human resource development, institution building, etc as it is private sector activities that drive economic growth.  In this package various attractive programs are included such as formulating 10 strategic master plans for urban transportation, building TICAD human resource development centers for business and industry at 10 locations, and transforming agriculture from a subsistence to a commercial venture in 10 countries, to name a few.  I am sure that these programs will benefit Ethiopia, especially as they are in line with the GTP.  I will not go into the details here as this issue will be discussed later.  I just want to highlight that it is important to ensure that Ethiopia can enjoy its own share from this TICADV support package.  For this, it is crucial that we work closely with each other, MOFED, the Japanese Embassy and the JICA office, and start our preparations as quickly as possible.

Excellency, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Finally, let me express my wish that this policy dialogue will be inclusive and participatory, and that it will help deepen our mutual understanding of our development cooperation and strengthen our partnership.

Amesegenalehu!