St. Petersburg G-8 Summit - Indian Non Paper on “India’s Partnership with Africa”
16/07/2006
India's relations with Africa are built on the strong political foundation of the past. We were close partners with Africa in the fight against colonialism and apartheid. The goodwill of the past is evident in the close relationship that India has today with the countries of the African continent.
2. India is today looking at the more contemporary challenges of economic and social development in its relationship with Africa. The relationship is not one of donor-recipient but of partnership for mutual benefit.
Technical assistance
3. The Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation Programme (ITEC) is almost four decades old. It has enabled us to share a wide range of training facilities and project expertise with our friends from Africa. India’s development experience has a special relevance for African requirements. Over the last five decades, through an incremental process of trial and error, we have forged a development paradigm that – within the context of a diverse, pluralistic democracy – is truly unique. Our approach has focused on strengthening ‘South-South’ linkages and promoting self-reliance through transfer of technologies appropriate to the needs of our partners. In monetary terms, we have spent over a billion dollars on our cooperation programmes with Africa and continue to provide training annually to almost 1,000 officials in various capacity-building programmes. This is apart from the over 15,000 African students who join Indian Colleges and Universities every year.
Lines of credit
4. We recognize that technical assistance alone is not enough. The process of economic development also requires access to low cost capital. We are not a rich country in terms of per capita income but the accumulation of a relatively comfortable level of foreign currency reserves has enabled us to offer concessional lines of credit. Taken together with our lines of credit to individual countries, our offers of $ 200 million for the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and $ 500 million for Team 9 [Techno-Economic Approach for African Movement – an initiative that brings together India and 9 countries of West and Central Africa] add up to almost $ 1 billion. This is being used as a catalyst to build genuine, productive and sizeable partnerships in sectors like railways, construction, electrification, irrigation, food-processing, agricultural machinery and cotton spinning.
Pan-African Satellite-based connectivity:
5. Our scientists have placed us in a leadership
position in a wide range of satellite-based technologies, Our communication,
educational, remote sensing and meteorological satellites are enabling us to
bring the benefits of tele-medicine, tele-education, resource mapping and
weather forecasting to some of the remotest parts of our country. During the
visit of our President to Africa in September, 2004, we announced our
willingness to share the benefits of these technologies with our friends in
Africa. The Indian Space Research Organisation has developed an ambitious plan
to connect the 53 countries of Africa through a network that uses satellite,
fiber optic and wireless links. We would, in partnership with the African Union
and individual countries of Africa, be establishing a network that links
learning centers, Universities and hospitals in every country of Africa with
counterpart institutions in India that have a proven expertise in these fields.
After many rounds of extensive discussions, the Government of India and the
African Union signed the MOU for the project on October 27, 2005. Project
execution is presently underway.
Projects:
6. India provides assistance for project related activities, such as
feasibility studies and consultancy services, apart from actual project
implementation. The assistance provided is comprehensive and includes training
as well as deputation of Indian experts. India has contributed to a very large
number of projects in Africa. An illustrative list of projects established with
Indian assistance is as follows:
- Lilongwe Water Supply System in Malawi
- Ebene Cyber City Project in Mauritius
- Kofi Annan IT Centre for Excellence in Ghana
- Entrepreneurship Development Centre in Senegal - Nigeria Machine Tools in Nigeria
- Plastic Technology Centre in Namibia
- India Farmers Project in Burkina Faso
- Village Electrification Projects in Soune and Touly in Senegal
- Gandhi Memorial Hospital in Ethiopia
Peace-Keeping Operations:
7. We fully recognize the importance of a stable polity as a pre-requisite for economic progress. The legacy of longstanding conflicts has left its scars on many parts of Africa. We hope that the vision and determination of the African Union and of Africa’s contemporary leaders will soon make such conflicts a thing of the past. From our side, we will continue to support peace-keeping efforts wherever required. We have done so from the time of the conflict in Biafra. In more recent times, the contribution of our troops has been widely recognized in Ethiopia, Somalia, Sierra Leone and Eritrea. Even now we have over 3500 soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo and and over 1500 Indian soldiers on the Ethiopia-Eritrea border. Our defence personnel have not only worked with troops from other nations to bring peace but have also distinguished themselves for the exemplary fashion in which they have contributed humanitarian assistance and participated in development activities in the areas where they have been deployed.
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