Ticad 7 : Partners Commit To Accelerating Africa's Progress

Concerned parties who took part in talks at the Seventh Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD 7) which held under the theme "Advancing Africa's Development through People, Technology and Innovation," in Yokohama, Japan have all agreed to contribute in fostering development in the African continent. They equally noted the progress made across Africa in recent years and recognized the significant transformations in the continent since TICAD began in 1993. The event which started on August 28 and ended on August 30, 2019 was co-chaired by the Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe and the Chairman of the African Union, Abdelfattah El-Sisi, who is equally the President of Egypt with the Minister of External Relations, Lejeune Mbella Mbella, head of the Cameroonian delegation representing the Head of State during deliberations. Going by the Yokohama Declaration adopted at the end of discussions, the different delegations who attended the 3-day event committed themselves to sustaining and accelerating development progress in Africa while taking into consideration the continent's opportunities for transformation. "The continent is an attractive destination for investors and serves as a huge source of consumer markets for locally and internationally produced food, goods and services. In this regard, we commit to promoting advocacy platforms to attain greater visibility for the African Continental Free Trade Area (ACFTA). We underscore the importance of private sector development, digital transformation, and youth and women entrepreneurship as strategies for implementing the priority areas, of TICAD 7, " partly reads the declaration. The document further states that in line of continuing with TICAD's progress and priorities, TICAD will continue to support inclusive and sustainable development on the African continent by working across the three pillars of the concept, namely economic, social, peac...