Since the first Tokyo International Conference on African Development, known as TICAD, took place in 1993, Africa has developed dramatically.
What was once known as the continent of starvation and poverty, Africa is now an area for business opportunities, luring investments from foreign countries with its rich natural resources and high population growth.
Between 2002 and 2011, sub-Saharan Africa logged real gross domestic product growth rates of 5.8 percent on average, according to the International Monetary Fund. The balance of direct investment to Africa nearly quadrupled in the past decade, and its total population is estimated to reach 2 billion in 2050 from about 1 billion in 2010, according to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.