{"id":230966,"date":"2022-07-11T12:26:21","date_gmt":"2022-07-11T10:26:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/afdb.africa-newsroom.com\/press\/statement-on-the-death-of-former-prime-minister-of-japan-shinzo-abe?lang=en"},"modified":"2022-07-11T12:26:21","modified_gmt":"2022-07-11T10:26:21","slug":"statement-on-the-death-of-former-prime-minister-of-japan-shinzo-abe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/statement-on-the-death-of-former-prime-minister-of-japan-shinzo-abe\/","title":{"rendered":"Statement on the Death of Former Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"image_wrap\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.africa-newsroom.com\/files\/thumb\/bf6663512e38d49\/600\/418\" alt=\"African Development Bank Group (AfDB)\" \/><\/div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.africa-newsroom.com\/africarc\/loganalytics?press_id=207799&amp;press_source=African Development Bank Group (AfDB)\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I wish to express my condolences and sympathies to the Government and people of Japan on the tragic death of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>We mourn the loss of a great global statesman.<\/p>\n<p>Shinzo Abe was a gentleman, a caring and visionary leader, who worked for a better and more peaceful world. He will be greatly missed.<\/p>\n<p>Shinzo Abe had a special love and affection for Africa.<\/p>\n<p>During the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD-6) in 2016, I had the privilege of huddling together with him and several heads of State, to help find a way to provide Africa with access to Japanese cleaner energy sources. The result of that meeting was an invitation to visit him in Tokyo and a subsequent decision by the Japanese Government to provide a major clean energy financing facility to Africa.<\/p>\n<p>During the 30<sup>th<\/sup> Anniversary of the Sasakawa Foundation in 2016 in Tokyo, he graced the occasion and delivered a moving and memorable speech about the importance of food security in Africa.<\/p>\n<p>We met again in 2019, at the invitation of President Emmanuel Macron during the Biarritz&nbsp;G7 leaders summit. As always, he was keenly supportive of the African Development Bank&rsquo;s efforts to support African women through the Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa initiative (AFAWA), for which the G7 subsequently helped to raise $450&nbsp;million, with a goal to mobilize $5&nbsp;billion for women in Africa.<\/p>\n<p>Under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the African Development Bank was given prominence in the foreign policy of Japan. Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the African Development Bank signed the $3&nbsp;billion Enhanced Private Sector Assistance for Africa (EPSA-3) and $3.5&nbsp;billion EPSA-4 agreements for co-financing in Africa, further boosting investments in Africa&rsquo;s infrastructure and private sector.<\/p>\n<p>It is to Shinzo Abe&rsquo;s credit that the term &ldquo;quality infrastructure&rdquo; was coined and mainstreamed into the global financing of infrastructure by the G20.<\/p>\n<p>Under Shinzo Abe&rsquo;s exemplary leadership, ties between Africa and Japan became stronger than ever.<\/p>\n<p>We will be forever indebted to the lasting contributions Shinzo Abe made to our continent.<\/p>\n<p>I send my deepest condolences to his dear wife, family, and the government and people of Japan at this time of much sorrow.<\/p>\n<p>I share in your sorrow and pain on the loss of one of the finest global leaders of our generation. Shinzo Abe&rsquo;s death is a huge loss to Japan and to the world.<\/p>\n<p>May his soul rest in peace.<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Akinwumi A.&nbsp;Adesina<br \/>\nPresident, African Development Bank Group<\/p>\n<p><i>Distributed by APO Group on behalf of African Development Bank Group (AfDB).<\/i><\/p>\n<div class=\"well well-sm\"><b>Media files<\/b><br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-newsroom.com\/files\/large\/f60887e9b8882e1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.africa-newsroom.com\/files\/large\/f60887e9b8882e1\" alt=\"African Development Bank Group (AfDB)\" style=\"max-width:500px\" \/><\/a><br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-newsroom.com\/files\/download\/f60887e9b8882e1\">Download logo<\/a><\/div>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-newsroom.com\/\">Source: Africa Newsroom &#8211; APO<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I wish to express my condolences and sympathies to the Government and people of Japan on the tragic death of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. We mourn the loss of a great global statesman. Shinzo Abe was a gentleman, a caring and visionary leader, who worked for a better and more peaceful world. He will [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":230967,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4584],"tags":[4585],"class_list":{"0":"post-230966","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-africa-news-2","8":"tag-apo","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/statement-on-the-death-of-former-prime-minister-of-japan-shinzo-abe.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}