An Invitation to the International Seminar on

AFRICAN MANUFACTURING: CURRENT STATUS, FUTURE PROSPECTS
AND POLICY DIRECTION
Organized by GRIPS Development Forum
Supported by Japan International Cooperation Agency

Africa has made some progress in economic growth, but much still depends on natural resources and/or
capital inflow. Many African states look to industrialization, especially light manufacturing, as a moresustainable source of growth and structural transformation. Labor-intensive processes in East Asia arebeing forced to relocate as wages soar, while large- and medium-scale textile and footwear FDI fromTurkey, India, China, etc. is beginning to arrive in some parts of Africa. Japan continues to assist Africa
through TICAD V commitments, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)’s kaizen and otherprograms, promotion of Japanese FDI, GRIPS-JICA industrial policy dialogue with Ethiopia, amongothers.
The GRIPS Development Forum, supported by JICA, is pleased to welcome leading experts on this topic
from two organizations, the African Center for Economic Transformation (ACET) and the World Bank, todiscuss the present and future of African manufacturing and the roles that policy and internationalcooperation must play.
DATE & TIME: 14:00-17:00, Friday, March 7, 2014
VENUE:

National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS)
Room 1A&B (first floor)
7-22-1 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan
MAP: www.grips.ac.jp/forum-e/access.htm

PROGRAM:
13:30 Registration
14:00 Izumi Ohno, GRIPS – Introduction to the Seminar
14:05 Toru Homma – JICA’s Industrial Cooperation in Africa
14:20 Joe Amoako-Tuffour, ACET – 2014 African Transformation Report: Growth with Depth
14:45 Edward K. Brown, ACET – Leveraging Abundant Labour for Manufacturing in Sub-SaharanAfrica15:10 Hinh T. Dinh, World Bank – Light Manufacturing in Africa
15:35 Kenichi Ohno, GRIPS – Ethiopia as Japan’s Partner in Trade and Manufacturing: A
Perspective from Ethiopia-Japan Policy Dialogue
16:00 Discussion
17:00 Closing remark
GRIPS contact:
Ms. Makiko Nakamichi
m-nakamichi@grips.ac.jp / Tel: 03-6439-6337 / Fax: 03-6439-6010
This seminar is supported by JSPS Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (KAKENHI (A) Grant Number 22243027).

Edward K. Brown is the Director of Policy Advisory Services at ACET. He has more than
27-years experience at the World Bank working extensively in Africa, Eastern Europe andCentral Asia. He also served as country manager and resident representative for Moldova,Tajikistan, Rwanda and Niger. His main interests include institutional management,development strategies, aid coordination, and post-conflict recovery and development. He
holds a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania.
Joe Amoako-Tuffour is a Senior Advisor at ACET and a Professor of Economics at St.
Xavier University. He has a wealth of experience as a government advisor on tax policy forGhana’s ministry of finance and economic planning. Some of his research topics include
petroleum laws, tourism, donor aid, good governance, and public debt. He obtained aPh.D. in Economics from the University of Alberta.
Hinh T. Dinh is a Lead Economist in the Office of the Senior Vice President and Chief
Economist of the World Bank in Washington DC. He was the Team Leader of the Light
Manufacturing in Africa Project and Lead Author of the project publications. Previously, hewas a Lead Economist in the Africa Region working on 13 African countries. He also has
experience in China, India, Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina as well as Middle Easterncountries. He received a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Pittsburgh.
Toru Homma is a Senior Advisor on Private Sector Development at JICA. He has a longcareer in development assistance on industry, trade, investment and private sector
development in Africa and Asia. Mr. Homma worked for the OECD Secretariat and served
as the Project Manager of the NEPAD-OECD Africa Investment Initiative. He has a MSc
degree in Industrial Strategy and Trade Policy from University of Manchester, UK.
Kenichi Ohno is a professor at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies(GRIPS), Tokyo, specializing in economic development and industrial policy. His researchteam, GRIPS Development Forum, conducts policy dialogue with the governments ofEthiopia and Vietnam in cooperation with JICA and other Japanese agencies. He holds aPh.D. in economics from Stanford University.

About ACET & ATR
The African Center for Economic Transformation, founded in 2007 in Accra, Ghana, is an economic policy
institute supporting Africa’s long-term growth through transformation by offering analysis, advice andadvocacy. It is led by Dr. K.Y. Amoako, former UN Under Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of ECA,and staffed with about 30 African economists. ACET will soon publish the African Transformation Report(2014), its key research document, featuring drivers of economic transformation, African Transformation Index,
case studies, each country’s pathways, etc.
About the Light Manufacturing in Africa Project
Supported by the Japan Policy and Human Resources Development Fund, this World Bank
research project was completed in 2013 with the publication of five books on the lightmanufacturing sector in Ethiopia (2012), Tanzania (2013), Zambia (2013), China (2013), andVietnam (2013), and a sixth book on the performance of manufacturing firms in Africa (2012)..
The project aims to find practical ways to create jobs and prosperity in sub-Saharan Africa
through the development of light manufacturing.
About Learning to Industrialize
Learning to Industrialize: From Given Growth to Policy-aided Value Creation (Routledge, 2013):
for countries wishing to learn the East Asian way, this study by K. Ohno advocates policy learning
based on international comparison of best policy practices. A related volume: I. Ohno & K. Ohnoeds, Eastern and Western Ideas for African Growth: Diversity and Complementarity inDevelopment Aid (Routledge, 2013).