YOKOHAMA ¨C Pledges to assist African development show ¡°lots of generosity¡± but Japan can benefit from extending assistance in a variety of fields, Cote d¡¯Ivoire President Alassane Ouattara said Monday.

Cote d¡¯Ivoire ¡°showed a 9.8 percent economic growth last year and is considered one of the 10 fastest-growing economies in the world,¡± Ouattara, in Japan to attend the fifth Tokyo International Conference on African Development, said during an interview with The Japan Times.

Further Japanese involvement in the development of Cote d¡¯Ivoire, in such fields as agriculture, manufacturing and infrastructure, will not only profit the locals but Tokyo as well, he said.

Although China¡¯s presence in Africa has increased drastically in recent years, Japan is still the world¡¯s third-largest economy and can play an important role in Africa¡¯s development, Ouattara pointed out.

For example, trade between Cote d¡¯Ivoire and Japan is ¡°not high and quite small,¡± especially compared with China, he said, and urged stronger economic ties between the two countries.

To that end the TICAD conference proved fruitful. During a Friday meeting between the president and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Tokyo agreed to dispatch a group of business executives and government officials to Cote d¡¯Ivoire in July to examine the business potential.

Despite a civil war following the 2010 presidential election, Ouattara gave assurances the western African nation is making strong progress toward normalcy.

Embassies and international organizations are returning to Cote d¡¯Ivoire as the country stabilizes, he said, adding that the African Development Bank also agreed recently to return its headquarters to Cote d¡¯Ivoire within the year after a temporary move to Tunisia.

Such decisions are ¡°signals¡± that show Cote d¡¯Ivoire is achieving stability, the president said. ¡°Ivorians are very determined to live together in peace for the future,¡± he added.

Ouattara attended the inaugural TICAD meeting in 1993 as the prime minister of Cote d¡¯Ivoire and the 1998 meeting as a member of the delegation of the International Monetary Fund.