India to focus on bilateral growth in trade and investment with Africa

Bilateral growth in trade and investment with Africa appears to be India’s prime focus and Asia’s third largest nation is increasingly looking towards the world’s second largest continent to tap the rich resource there. However, India is expected to face severe competition from the world’s second largest nation China, which has over the past decade been aggressively investing in the region to secure access to its rich mineral resources and has grown its two-way trade with Africa nearly twice the size of India's.

An Indian contingent led by Union Minister for Commerce & Industry, Anand Sharma is on its way to Addis Ababa in order to attend a special Meeting of Africa-India Trade Ministers to be held on May 21, 2011. The meeting, which will involve trade and industry ministers from all the member states, will pave the way for 2nd Africa-India Forum Summit which is scheduled to be held on May 24th - 25th, 2011 at Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in which Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh will participate.

The trade ministers are expected to exchange views on the on-going Multilateral trade Negotiations in the Doha Round and on ways to safeguard the interests of the developing nations in Multilateral Co-operation. While discussions will also take place on the Global Economic Situation and each country`s macroeconomic policies along with the ways of Strengthening of Trade and Investment relations between India and Africa. Deliberations are also likely to cover the issue of accessing the Indian market, including implementation of Duty Free Tariff Preferences Scheme (DFTP) for LDCs and India may also offer technical assistance and capacity Building for Africa in the areas of “Dispute Settlement in WTO” and “WTO Negotiations”.

According to an official statement released by the ministry of commerce, Anand Sharma opined “We affirm that cooperation between Africa and India has been, from its inception, a useful example of South-South co-operation. It has been our endeavour at this Summit to devise ways and means of enhancing this South-South partnership, taking into account the new capabilities that have emerged in Africa and India”.

Underscoring the importance of the growing trade and bilateral investment with Africa, Sharma stated that “economic and development co-operation between India and Africa is a corner stone of their new age partnership. Trade between India and Africa crossed $46 billion last year and is expected to reach $70 billion by 2015. Indian private sector entrepreneurs have evinced considerable interest in partnering in Africa’s growth story and have made investments in excess of $25 billion in a wide range of sectors from Telecom, Automobiles, IT, Pharmaceuticals and Agriculture”.

The Africa - India Forum Summit provides a unique opportunity to strengthen the economic dialogue between India and the African Countries and promote measures for capacity building. It is proposed to discuss the establishment of a mechanism to strengthen trade and investment linkages between India and Africa with specific focus on the role of Regional Economic Communities.