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Japan 'to help develop Sudan'
18/02/2008 07:28 - (SA)
Juba - Japan's aid agency is preparing to assist development in southern Sudan after upgrading its assessment of security in the impoverished region, says the organisation's president.
"We are very happy to see JICA involved in the reconstruction of southern Sudan," Sadako Ogata, head of the Japan International Cooperation Agency, said in the southern capital, Juba.
Last month, the aid agency's security team analysed the situation in the south at the invitation of ex-rebels now incorporated into a national unity government in Sudan.
"They wanted to be sure that local security was good for our staff to work here, and they found it satisfactory," said Ogata, who flew to the south after talks in Khartoum with government and United Nations officials.
Japan pledges $150m
Her visit came one day after a Japanese newspaper reported that Tokyo was mulling sending peacekeeping troops to southern Sudan under a UN umbrella to help implement a 2005 peace deal that ended more than two decades of war.
Southern Sudan officials had welcomed the possibility.
"Japan, being an influential member of the UN, can play a role," said southern Sudan Regional Cooperation Minister Barnaba Marial Benjamin.
The JICA had said it was considering projects in health and education.
Japan, the world's second-largest economy, had pledged $150m through the UN or other relief bodies, for Darfur or southern Sudan. The security clearance would put Tokyo on course to implement its own projects.
Ogata had committed the JICA to expanding its assistance to Africa and the organisation's project budget for the continent had increased from 15.5 to 22%, $200m.
Asian countries were major players in Sudan, with China the country's biggest foreign investor, arms supplier and oil customer. Malaysia was another key trading partner.
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