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Your Excellencies,
Hon’ble Ministers,
Presidents of FICCI & CII
Distinguished Guests
Ladies & Gentlemen
It is a great honour and privilege for me to be present here today at this Business Luncheon. I take this opportunity to commend FICCI & CII, who have jointly organized this as the concluding event of the India-Africa Forum Summit. This has provided Indian business and industry a platform to meet and interact with our African guests and impart content to the economic dimension of the Summit. This event is indeed a fitting finale to the Summit.
The India-Africa Summit concluded just about an hour ago. It constitutes a defining moment in the India-Africa relationship. The Delhi Declaration, together with the Framework for India-Africa cooperation, is a clear reaffirmation of India’s deep commitment to the development of Africa. We hope that it will serve as a blue-print for creating sustainable and mutually beneficial partnerships between India and the countries of Africa. I am confident that its implementation will begin at the earliest.
In the last few years, there has been rapid progress in India-Africa relations. We have seen many high level visits and increased economic and technical cooperation. Africa has traditionally had the largest share of our allocation of concessional loans. As the Prime Minister announced yesterday, we intend to double present levels of credit to Africa and allocate $5.4 billion in lines of credit over the next 5 years. This will be for projects prioritised by Africa and thus reflective of their needs. The credits will be utilised, among others, for enhancing agricultural production, development of the infrastructure and energy sectors, small and medium enterprises, irrigation, food processing, IT and pharmaceuticals.
It is India’s intention to enter into a long-term sustainable partnership with Africa. Almost all African leaders at the Summit have spoken of the need to enhance capacity building and human resource development. Prime Minister has yesterday announced augmentation of the Ministry of External Affairs’ Aid to Africa budget for capacity building and technical assistance. Accordingly, we will double educational scholarships for Africa and increase ITEC slots every year. We intend to set up apex institutions for training and value addition in Africa in areas as diverse as trade, IT, entrepreneurial development, education, coal, diamonds, etc.
Our trade and investment partnership with Africa has increased by leaps and bounds in recent years. This is due to the forces of economic liberalization unleashed in both India and Africa. We are also mindful of the need to provide greater market access to imports from Africa. Accordingly, in consonance with our commitment at WTO, we have now decided to extend duty free tariff preference scheme to imports from the 34 Least Developed Countries of Africa.
The Government of India has also worked with Indian industry in forging project partnerships. Last month, I and my colleagues interacted with over 600 delegates from 33 African countries at the 10th India-Africa Project Partnership Conclave in New Delhi. I had the privilege of the wise counsel of more than 30 Ministers from Africa who led their delegations. We were also honoured by the presence of their Excellencies, the Vice-Presidents of Tanzania & Ghana. We intend to carry this forward by organizing 3 regional conclaves in Africa in 2008-2009.
It is a matter of satisfaction to us that Africa has found value in teaming up with Indian companies for diverse projects in Africa. I am confident that deliberations at this Forum will provide further impetus to this process. Building partnerships between the financial institutions of India and Africa would be important in this context.
I would urge Indian companies, however, to do more to step up their engagement with Africa for mutual benefit. Africa is the second fastest growing region after Asia. Africa’s development can and must be accelerated by investments and technology transfer by Indian companies. The continent needs large amounts of investment to build roads, railways and other infrastructure. There is therefore need to mobilize greater Indian private sector participation in the infrastructure development of Africa. The region also has millions of young people who can be employed in the manufacturing and services sectors. The large communities of Indian origin that can be found in many parts of Africa can be an added advantage; they can help Indian businesses understand the social and cultural ethos of the African people. Such initiatives would respond directly to the requirements referred to by a number of African leaders at our Summit.
While direct investments in Africa should be the desirable goal of Indian companies in expanding their presence overseas, one area where further improvement needs to be made is broadening the ambit of trade. At present, only 7.7% of India’s exports are destined for Africa. Similarly, imports from Africa contribute only 6.7% of our total imports. Businessmen from India and the African countries need to take up this challenge to augment our trade levels with Africa. The sectors identified for today’s presentations hold a lot promise for our cooperation. I am confident that business and industry on both sides would take advantage of opportunities in these areas for forging joint ventures and technical tie-ups.
Before I conclude, I wish to flag an important issue to which attention has been drawn by nearly all the leaders at the Summit – and that is food security. Food security is perhaps one of the most critical issues that we are faced with today, particularly the developing countries. Prices of agricultural commodities are on the rise all over the world for a variety of reasons. This has impacted negatively on food security, especially in countries that are dependent on agricultural imports. At the same time, trade distorting agricultural subsidies given by developed countries also act against the interests of the developing countries, particularly their farming communities. The problem is compounded by the fact that, in many countries, arable land is increasingly being diverted for other purposes.
Our decision at the Summit to strengthen cooperation in agriculture can help address the problem of food security. We have agreed to co-operate in this sector and have identified a number of areas for such co-operation. These include capacity building and sharing of experiences, transfer of applied agricultural technology and skills and enhancing market opportunities for African value-added agricultural products. India also remains ready to share its experience in agriculture extension, livestock development, fisheries, water management and measures to confront the growing threat of climate change. In addition, the Indian private sector should look for opportunities for joint ventures in Africa for production of cereals, oilseeds and pulses. This can be for local consumption, as well as for export to India and third countries. I am sure that Indian companies will explore this avenue of co-operation with their counterparts in the private sector in various African countries as well as the Governments of those countries.
With these remarks, I would like to thank the distinguished guests who have honoured us with their presence here today. Once again, I thank FICCI and CII for inviting me to address this important gathering.
Thank you.
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