Japan pledges to help Africa double rice production

Japan vowed Wednesday to use its technological prowess to help African nations double rice production within a decade and ease the burden of soaring food prices.
Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda also pledged to double aid to the continent and offered billions of dollars in loans as he opened a three-day summit here of African leaders.
The gathering in Yokohama, near Tokyo, is seen as a bid by Japan to expand its clout in Africa, where China has been rapidly sealing political alliances and business deals.
Fifty-two African nations are taking part in the summit, 40 of them represented by senior leaders -- including South African President Thabo Mbeki, who faced criticism for going abroad amid anti-immigrant violence at home.
Fukuda opened the conference by pledging to double aid by 2012 and offering four billion dollars in low-interest loans to develop infrastructure.
Amid spiralling food prices that have triggered unrest in some parts of the world, Fukuda also promised to devote Japanese technology to help Africa double rice production over the next 10 years from the current 14 million tonnes.
"If I were to liken the history of African development to a volume of literature, then what we are about to do now is to open a new page entitled 'the century of African growth,'" Fukuda said.
"In the future, Africa will become a powerful engine driving the growth of the world," he said.
World Bank president Rob Zoellick also gave an upbeat assessment of Africa's potential.
"I believe Africa can become a new pole of global growth, just as we have seen over the last 15 years China and India and others have become complementary poles of growth to the developed countries," Zoellick said.
The summit, called the Fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD IV), comes little more than a month before Japan hosts the annual Group of Eight summit of the world's top industrial powers.