Your Excellency Mr. Uhuru Kenyatta, President of the Republic of Kenya,
Your Excellencies, Heads of State and Government of the Member States of the African Union,
Your Excellency Mr. Shinzo Abe, Prime Minister of Japan
Your Excellency Mr. Ban Ki-Moon, Secretary General of the United Nations,
Dr. Lopez, Executive Secretary of the UNECA,
Dr. Adesina, President of the African Development Bank Group,
Deputy Chairperson, Erastus Mwencha and fellow Commissioners,
CEO of the NEPAD Agency, Dr. Ibrahim Mayaki,
Excellencies, Ministers
Esteemed Participants, Ladies and Gentlemen
It gives me great pleasure to address this TICAD VI Summit, the first taking place in Africa since its launch by the Japanese Government in 1993.
Our deep appreciation to the Government and people of Kenya, who spared no effort to ensure a smooth Summit. Let me also use this opportunity to extend a warm African welcome to our brothers and sisters from Japan and other parts of the world.
The themes of this Sixth TICAD Summit focuses on partnerships for shared prosperity, at a time when there seems to be so many things that divide global humanity. These issues range from poverty and inequality, exclusion and extremism, to intolerance of the rich diversity in culture, languages, religion and history that characterizes our world.
A forum such as TICAD, where we come together to find common solutions as partners, is therefore important.
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen
When Africa adopted its 50 year vision, Agenda 2063. The Africa we want, it committed current and future generations to a vision of shared peace and prosperity, in an integrated continent.
Twenty three years after the first TICAD, the continent has come a long way, and its fortunes have changed. The vibrant city of Nairobi, the host to this sixth TICAD is an example of developments across the length and breadth of Africa: of entrepreneurship and innovation, of expansions in infrastructure.
At the same time, as Agenda 2063 urges, we must do much more, do it faster and more inclusive, to ensure the structural transformation of African economies to make shared prosperity a reality.
The themes and subthemes of this conference speak to what needs to be done, in agriculture and agro-processing, industrialization, in investing in the health, in combatting climate change, in the education and skills of African people, and in building peaceful, stable and inclusive societies.
I need not remind all of us, that this continent has so many advantages – its natural resources and the resilience and resourcefulness of its people. As the youngest continent, with more than half of them girls and women, we can indeed reach for more. Working together, we can achieve more.
Japan has remain a reliable partner of Africa, with lessons from its own experiences of transformation over the last century and its steadfast commitment to African development.
We also thank our other partners in TICAD, the World Bank, UNDP and the UN System as a whole for their commitment to ensure that indeed we build a better life for all global citizens and for Africans.
In our engagements with the UN System, we are working together to ensure that we have joint implementation and monitoring of the sustainable development goals and Agenda 2063. This approach must also characterized our other partnerships, including TICAD, so that we focus on those priorities critical to our transformation.
Ladies and Gentlemen
Our world today, including parts of our continent face many challenges that tear countries and regions apart.
It is therefore important that as we discuss these critical themes, we bear in mind that social cohesion – in communities, countries, regions and indeed our planet – can only be build on a foundation of inclusion and respect, of opportunities for all, and on shared prosperity.
This gathering, with participants from different parts of our globe, bringing together governments, international partners, regional organisations, civil society and the private sector , is a testimony of our shared commitment to a better Africa and to a Better world.
I therefore wish all of us a successful TICAD VI Summit.
I thank you.
