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Times of India

India calls to boost trade with Africa to $70 billion

23 March 2009

New Delhi: India has called for doubling the India-Africa bilateral trade to the level of $70 billion over the next five years, continuing the growth trajectory that began in 2000-01 when trade was a mere $3 billion and shot up to $36 billion in 2007-08.

In April 2008 India had announced duty free tariff preferential scheme for 49 least developed countries (LDCs) which has benefited 33 African countries.

Delivering the keynote address at a special plenary at the 5th CII-EXIM Bank Conclave on India Africa Project Partnership 2009 on Monday, the Indian External Affairs Minister, Pranab Mukherjee said, “Given the concrete opportunities that exist between the two sides, India-Africa trade could easily be doubled to $70 billion over the next five years. I would urge this conclave to accept this challenge and plan out strategies to achieve it.” He also urged for supplementing government’s effort with those from the industry, civil society and private institutions in order to widen and deepen the foundation of India’s growing partnership with the African continent.

While Indian companies have already begun investing in Africa, the African leaders have called for boosting investments in agriculture, mining, power, agro-processing, irrigation, pharmaceuticals, IT, health, retail chain and small and medium scale sector for generating employment.

The two-day conclave has the participation from 450 participants from Africa, including ministers from 12 African countries namely Mauritius, Burkina Faso, Cote d’lvoire, Botswana, Mozambique, Sudan, Comoros, Togo, Congo, Uganda and Central African Republic.

India is the world’s largest importer of rough diamonds, most of which are sourced from Africa. It is also an exporter of cut and polished diamonds.

Mukherjee assured the African leaders that India was favourably considering the request of some African countries to set up Diamond Cutting and Polishing Institutes in that continent for training their personnel. He supported the endeavours of the African Union towards regional integration and for building Pan-African institutions. He said that despite the current global economic downturn India would continue to fulfill its commitments towards Africa made at the India-Africa Summit in April, 2008.

Mukherjee said that both India and Africa were in a position to confront international terrorism, hunger, poverty and to tackle global warming and evolve new frameworks for global institutions.

The Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation has benefited African students undertaking training courses in India and in 2009 the government has designed special courses for experts from Africa in mining and new and renewable energy resources. The number of training slots for African students has been increased from 1100 to 1600. The number of scholarships for African students has been doubled to 500.

Mukherjee said India was committed to helping Africa bridge the digital divide and help spread the benefits of development, specially in sub-Saharan Africa. In this connection, he pointed to India’s Pan-African e-Network Project, the first phase of which he had inaugurated in February. He said this project aims at linking major universities and centres of excellence in Africa and India as also its major hospitals with super-speciality hospitals in India to improve higher education and medicine facilities. The project, which currently covers 11 countries, will be extended to 22 more by the middle 2009.

The executive director of EXIM Bank of India, Shankernarayan R Rao said that the bank has already extended $2 billion line of credit to African nations and extending another $600 million credit was under consideration at various stages. This was a part of the commitment to extended $5.3 billion assistance over a period of five years, he said. The credit is for development of trade, infrastructure both in the private and public sectors.

Delivering the special address on behalf of the President of Burkina Faso, Alian Bedouma Yoda, the country’s Minister of Foreign Affairs & Regional Cooperation, said the great opportunities existed for Indian businessmen in his country, which had only recently opened its doors to privatization. “The legal framework for this was already in place, he said.

Yoda said Burkian Faso was attempting to improve its economy by developing its mineral resources, improving its infrastructure, making its agricultural and livestock sectors more productive and competitive. “All these areas offer a window of opportunity for Indian industry,” he added.

In his address, the Dean of the African Group of Heads of Mission, Ambassador Jonathan Wutaunashe, emphasized that relations between India and Africa today represented the growth paradigm. “The African drum and the Indian sitar are today producing beautiful music and this is clearly evident in the growth in bilateral trade between the two regions.” Pointing out that India was the place where the economic action was taking place, Wutaunashe said that relations between the two regions had graduated from simple merchandise trade to investing in assets and jointly working towards achieving the millennium development goals (MDGs).