TOKYO (AFP) - African and Asian leaders opened a two-day conference to spur trade and investment between the two regions as Japan's prime minister said Africa could learn from Asia's economic miracle.
"In the last half century, Asia achieved unprecedented economic growth which was once dubbed the 'East Asian Miracle'," Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said in his English-language opening speech.
"In fact, this was not a miracle but the fruit of tireless efforts by the Asian people. The purpose of Asia-Africa cooperation is to share and make use of the Asian experiences for African development," he said.
Hundreds of government officials and private-sector experts kicked off the TICAD Asia-Africa Trade and Investment Conference at a Tokyo hotel.
Participants included President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria and Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki as well as senior officials from more than 40 other African states and 14 Asian countries.
Twenty-two European and other countries also sent delegates as did 20 international organizations.
The gathering is a follow-up meeting of the Third Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD III) held last year and is co-hosted by Japan, the World Bank, the United Nations and other international groups.
TICAD is a Japanese initiative started in 1993 to raise international support for African development and has been held every five years.
At the TICAD III, Tokyo pledged one billion dollars in aid to Africa over the next five years to cover health and medical care.
11/01/2004 - 00:20 GMT - AFP