President Uhuru Kenyatta Sunday afternoon said Kenya was honoured to have hosted the development conference that brought together the largest number of Heads of State and Governments in Nairobi in the last 30 years.
The President said the conference was a statement of confidence in Kenya by Africa, Japan and the world at large, adding that the 6th Tokyo International Conference on African Development, was more successful in terms of outcomes than all the previous editions.
“It is without a doubt, a clear manifestation of the confidence that our brothers and sisters within the continent have on us,” said President Kenyatta. “More importantly, it further confirms the faith and confidence that the international community at large, has in Kenya as a country.”
The conference was attended by a staggering 10,000 delegates from across Africa and Japan as well as partners from other parts of the world to dialogue on a better future for Africa.
“The number of Heads of State and Governments as well as the representation from the continent was close to 100 per cent,” said President Kenyatta.
At the conference held at the Kenyatta International convention Centre, 33 of the 54 countries in Africa were represented at the level of Head of State and Government while 5 were represented by Vice Presidents. Another 14 countries sent delegations led by Ministers at the meeting.
This was coupled with the presence of more than 100 chief executive officers from Japan representing the top Japanese companies.
Besides the main conference events, there were 100 side events, signalling the variety of content and participation.
The summit was anchored on the theme of “Advancing Africa’s Sustainable Development Agenda and, “Partnership for Prosperity.”
The development talks focused on promoting structural economic transformation through diversification and industrialization.
Also on the table were innovative ways to promoting resilient health systems for quality of life, and Promoting social stability for shared prosperity.
During the conference, the Nairobi Declaration and its Implementation Plan were adopted unanimously. The Nairobi declaration contains the blueprint for the continued partnership between Africa and Japan and will guide the delivery of the agreements reached during the talks.
The Nairobi declaration is designed to contribute to the improvement of infrastructure, clean energy generation and distribution, mordenisation of agriculture and health.
The deal is also expected to usher in greater economic integration of Africa and will also boost empowerment of women and youth.
At the closing ceremony, President Kenyatta was joined by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and other Heads of State to celebrate the resounding success of the conference.
PM Abe said the Nairobi meeting was more successful than all previous TICAD meetings.
He said 73 agreements for big investments were signed between Japanese companies and their African counterparts.
During the conference which started on Friday, PM Abe announced that Japan has committed to pump in more Sh3 trillion into Africa’s economy through private and public engagements.
The TICAD process has gained widespread support all across Africa because it is credited for renewing interest in Africa during the 1990’s.
The UNDP, the World Bank Group, African Union Commission were among organisations that partnered with Kenya and Japan to co-organise the event.
By PSCU.