Contributing to Trends in International Assistance: Discussions on Africa Industrial Policy with World Bank Officials

From October 18 to 23, the international conference "Pre-Conference on Structural Transformation and Economic Growth" took place in Washington, DC, as part of a World Bank initiative, the "Knowledge for Change Program" (KCP). JICA-RI Senior Research Fellow Akio Hosono and Research Fellow Suguru Miyazaki participated in it and made comments on the presentations delivered at the conference.

At the conference, themed under "Economic Growth and Structural Transformation," a variety of presentations were made on structural transformation and industrial policies targeting Africa among others, which implications led to active discussions by the participants centered on this point.

The outcomes from the overall KCP activities including this conference will be incorporated into the basic concept of the World Bank World Development Report 2013 (WDR 2013) to be published in 2012. With this contribution in mind, Miyazaki engaged in debate on the industrial policy of Africa with officials from the World Bank's Environment Department and Africa Region to exhibit the type of research planning representative of JICA-RI.

Through discussions with World Bank officials at this conference, Hosono says that JICA-RI and JICA have accumulated a tremendous number of achievements in Korea, Thailand, and Indonesia in regard to the research studies and cooperative projects related to the themes of this conference, and based on those he hopes to advance cooperation in working toward the WDR2013 production. On the other hand, Miyazaki points out that in addition to the comments by the attendees, continuous data collection and clarification of information is necessary for harmonization among the presentations and for streamlining and integration into the World Bank's new policy approaches. Furthermore, regarding the research project "Empirical Study of Industrial Clusters in Africa, the Role of Space, Infrastructure, Human Resources and Social Capital" of which he serves as head, Miyazaki says that based on the "economic growth and structural transformation" that was the theme of the conference, he not only wishes to contribute to the trends in international assistance, but also hopes to find more ways to shape research in response to the expectations from the World Bank and the international community.

RELATED RESEARCH AREA: Growth and Poverty Reduction

RELATED RESEARCH PROJECT: Empirical Study of Industrial Clusters in Africa, the Role of Space, Infrastructure, Human Resources and Social Capital