India, Africa to enhance economic relations; target $90 bn trade by 2015

19 Mar 2012 Evaluate

With an intention to boost bilateral trade between the regions, Indian and African leaders have decided to enhance economic and commercial relations and are aiming for $90 billion trade in next three years, which is a significant improvement, considering the fact that a decade ago the trade was $3 billion.  While, both the regions discussed potential areas of cooperation, India endeavored to boost its trade and diplomatic ties with Africa where China has already made major inroads by striking multiple deals, building infrastructure projects and offering soft loans.

The Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Anand Sharma along with over 500 Indian business delegates met his African counterpart who was accompanied by over 600 African delegates in New Delhi for the 2nd meeting of the India-Africa Trade Ministers where more than 250 projects worth close to $30 billion were being discussed.  Africa, which is richly endowed with oil, minerals and other natural resources, is looked upon as a destination from where India can diversify its energy sources and reduce its dependency on the Middle East which supplies two-thirds of its energy imports.

The African Trade and Industry Ministers acknowledged the Indian Government’s initiative to set up an Integrated Textiles as well as other clusters in African countries, to address the need for value-addition in the textiles sector in Africa. The proposed Integrated Clusters are expected to garner investments of $350 million and generate employment for 60,000 textile workers. Last year, the two sides had set a target of $70 billion trade to be achieved by 2015. Bilateral trade totaled $62 billion in 2011.

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