Newsletter No. 232
April 7, 2006

 

BUILDING A ROAD IN SENEGAL

At the end of March, Japan agreed to provide a yen loan to Senegal for the purpose of road-building. The name of the project is “Road Improvement and Transport Facilitation Program on the Southbound Bamako-Dakar Corridor.” Apparently, this will involve improvement of a road that runs from the Senegalese capital of Dakar to the Malian capital of Bamako. The loan amounts to about US$8.2 million.

The CIA World Factbook puts the population of Senegal -- the so-called “Gateway to West Africa” -- at about 12 million, of which about 94% are said to be Muslims. The country gained its independence from France on April 4, 1960, and is considered to be “one of the most stable democracies in Africa,” and often contributes to UN peacekeeping operations.

President Abdoulaye Wade has visited Japan once, in May 2003, but no Japanese head-of-state has ever visited Dakar.

There is a Senegal-Japan Friendship Association that was formed in December 1995 in Dakar which claims a membership of about 150 people. The main parliamentary figure in Japan who deals with Senegal issues appears to be Issei Inoue, who was an LDP House of Representatives member from 1976-2000. In the mid-1990s he became the Minister of Posts for a time. He is now the Honorary Consul-General of Senegal in Osaka.