JAPAN has announced plans to send Asian experts to Africa to upgrade skills and help lift the continent out of poverty. Tokyo will help the United Nations develop a program for skills development in Africa, said Yasuaki Nogawa, deputy director general of the foreign ministry’s Middle East and Africa bureau. Nogawa said the world body is already sending people to Africa on training missions. “We believe such a system could be a useful tool to promote sharing of experience… and decided to assist the UN to form a program to send Asian experts to Africa,” he told an Asia-Africa forum. “This program will be in a range of 1.2 million dollars for the first year.” Nogawa said Japan would also help the UN Development Program (UNDP) implement a 1.5 million dollar project this year to promote information and communication technologies in Africa. “The project may be named e-Africa,” he said. “The key factors… will be human resource development, technology transfer, infrastructure, policy advice and coordination with the private sector.”