OREANDA-NEWS. The President of the African Development Bank Group (AfDB), Akinwumi Adesina, will lead a top-level Bank team on a working visit to Japan, Korea and China from March 24-29.

During the visit, the team will engage with top government officials of these countries and business corporates on current development issues as well as on the Bank’s new development agenda, notably the High 5s priorities (Light up and power Africa, Feed Africa, Integrate Africa, Industrialize Africa, and Improve the quality of life for the people of Africa). These priorities provide practical and clear guidelines for the implementation of the Bank’s 2013-2022 Ten Year Strategy.  

While in Tokyo, Adesina and his delegation will meet with Japan’s Deputy Prime Minister, Taro Aso, the Vice-Minister of Finance for International Affairs, Masatsugu Asakawa, and the Bank of Japan Governor, Haruhiko Kuroda. The AfDB team will also engage with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) President, Shinichi Kitaoka, as well as the Bank for International Cooperation President and CEO, Hiroshi Watanabe,

The team will also meet with representatives of leading Japanese corporations, have a luncheon with the African Diplomatic Corps (ADC) in Tokyo as well as visit the Isogo Thermal Power Plant at Yokohama port city, 27 kilometres south of Tokyo.

On March 26, the AfDB delegation will travel to Seoul to be welcomed by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Strategy and Finance, Yoo Il ho; and attend a reception with Korean private sector representatives and the African Ambassadors in Korea.

The delegation will visit the world’s first underground thermal power plant in Seoul and engage with Ministers and heads of utilities, including the Ministers of Agriculture; Trade, Industry and Energy; Land, Infrastructure and Transport; the CEO of Korea Water Resources Corporation (K-water), Choi Gyewoon, as well as the Chairman of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), Yongmaan Park. They will be hosted to a dinner by the Mayor of Busan metropolitan city and a breakfast meeting with the Chairman of the Korea Export-Import Bank (KEXIM), Lee Duk-Hoon.

On March 28, President Adesina and the delegation will depart from Seoul and head to Beijing, where they will be received by Vice-Premier Ma Kai. They will also engage Governor Zhou Xiaochuan of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) as well as officials of China Export-Import Bank and China Development Bank.

The delegation will also visit the China Africa Industrial Capacity Cooperation Company and wind up with a dinner to be hosted by the China-Africa Development Fund (CADF).

Japan, Korea and China are among the 26 non-regional members of the Bank Group that provide resources for the institution’s African Development Fund’s concessional window. They also provide a range of bilateral trust and technical funds in support of projects and programmes in the regional member countries. These four countries including India have been recently very active on the African Continent. The AfDB Group, on October 2012, opened the Bank’s Representation Office for Asia (ASRO) in Tokyo, Japan, the Bank’s sole representative office outside Africa, to promote business and investment opportunities in, and with, Africa. The ASRO has been widely promoting the activities of the Bank, disseminating and exchanging knowledge about the Bank itself and the opportunities for development of the African continent.