On March 19, 2013, the Embassy of Japan in the UK, co-sponsored by Asia House, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), the Department for International Development (DFID), the United Kingdom Ministry of Trade and Investment (UKTI), JETRO, JICA, JBIC, and UK-Japan 21st Century Committee, held a seminar on the Business Environment in Africa.
In June this year、TICADV will be held in Japan and the G8 Summit will be held in the UK、Anglo-Japanese cooperation on African development is therefore of ever increasing importance and prevalence. The seminar was organised with a view to promote cooperation between private companies as well as the public and private sectors, with speeches and sessions focusing on the natural resources sector and infrastructure sector, these being key areas of interest at the last workshop.
Program of the day was as follows:
1. Opening Remarks by Keiichi Hayashi, Ambassador of Japan to the United Kingdom
2. Keynote speeches: TICAD & G8 – UK –Japan collaboration in Africa
- Donal Brown, Head of Africa Regional Programme, Department for International Development, UK
- Yoshifumi Okamura, Ambassador, Director General for African Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan and Personal Representative of the
Prime Minister for Africa
3. First Session (Investment Climate including Security in Africa)
Moderator: Nick Kay, Director, Africa, Foreign and Commonwealth Office
- “Overall Investment Environment” by Lord Malloch-Brown, Chairman, EMEA Region, FTI Consulting (former Minister of State, FCO and former Administrator of UNDP)
- “Business Risks in Africa for Japanese/UK Companies” by Anna Boyd, Deputy Head of Middle East and North Africa Forecasting, Exclusive Analysis
- “Business Environment in Sub-Saharan Africa -Japanese Perspective-” by Kimihiko Inaba, Executive Director, JETRO Johannesburg
4. Second Session (Sector specific discussions)
Moderator: Kevin Ringham, Senior Country Manager for Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, UK Trade and Industry
- Infrastructure (including Energy Sector)
- Nosizwe Dlengezele, Senior Manager Marketing and Market Analysis at Hitachi- Europe Ltd. Johannesburg branch
- Simon Lyons, Director of Marketing and Communications, Aggreko Plc
- Kenichi Matsumoto, President & Representative Director, Aggreko Japan K.K.
- Natural Resources
- Haruki Hayashi, Chief Regional Officer for Africa and CEO of Mitsubishi Corporation in Johannesburg
- Richard Morgan, International Government Relations Advisor, Anglo American
5. Closing Remarks by Toshiyuki Kosugi, Executive Officer for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, JBIC
Throughout the day, with the participation of over 150 government agency officials and business representatives of Japan and the United Kingdom, lively discussion and networking for business cooperation in the future took place. For more information, please refer to the seminar briefs.
|
