It’s time for Afro-optimism in India. And this time round the Africa-India business show promises to be more spectacular and varied, with over 600 delegates and officials from 41 African countries fleshing out deals, which could easily surpass $60 billion. And all this in three days!
It’s not only corporate honchos who are trooping to India for the three-day conclave starting March 17, but there are also going to be several ministers from African countries and 40-odd legislators in Asia’s third largest economy, raising the bar for a new model of win-win South-South partnership and business synergy. In between hard business deals, there will be some serious diplomacy with India rolling out the red carpet for Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi who is coming to New Delhi on his maiden visit amid the flux in the Arab world’s influential country.
And yes, the celebrations will be incomplete without some spirited dancing, singing and desi food – daal and biryani which have been effortlessly co-opted and amalgamated by Swahili-speaking Africans.
Co-hosted by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Exim Bank of India, the three-day business conclave, which has become a signature event in the diplomatic-corporate calendar, is expected to discuss 475 projects worth $64 billion, the organisers said. The focus will be on infrastructure and capacity building, core focus areas of India’s rejuvenated engagement with Africa. This year, Cameroon is the guest country and Ethiopia the focus country.
The business meet will encompass a host of related issues, including catalysing larger South-South cooperation for sustainable development, achieving food sufficiency, building capacity and infrastructure and scaling up Indian private investment in African manufacturing. The annual conclave has acted as a forum for miracles, says Jonathan Wutawunashe, Dean, African Diplomatic Corps and Zimbabawe’s ambassador to India.
The statistics could be sometimes deceptive, but the figures in this case aptly capture the burgeoning trade and investment graph between India and Africa that has emerged as a ‘Cape of Good Hope’ for India Inc. Adi Godrej, whose company has forayed into the consumer durable sector in Africa, has fittingly called Africa “the continent of the future,” encapsulating the new optimism this continent of one billion-plus people has generated across the world. The resurgent African continent is expected to hum at the growth rate of 6 per cent – a rare achievement in times of eurozone despair. India and Africa, with a combined gross domestic product of nearly $3 trillion and healthy growth rates, are rapidly emerging a bulwark against the corroding downturn. The two sides are already clocking bilateral trade of $60 billion and have set an ambitious target of scaling it to $90 billion by 2015.
Last year saw another milestone, with the launch of the India-Africa Business Council, comprising leading business leaders of both sides. The council is co-chaired by Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman, Bharti Group, and Alhaji Aliko Dangote, president and chief executive, Dangote Group, Nigeria.
Over the years, the India-Africa Project Partnership has emerged as a key platform for leveraging business synergies and economic complementarities between the two fastest growing regions in the world. The business conclave has provided the much-needed economic heft to the India-Africa Forum Summit process. New Delhi, which has made trade, technology and training the tripod of its Africa engagement policy, will host the third India-Africa summit in the summer of 2014.
(Manish Chand is Editor-in-Chief of India Writes (www.indiawrites.org) and Editor of Africa Quarterly. He is also Editor of Two Billion Dreams: Celebrating India-Africa Friendship, a pioneering work that captures the unfolding saga of India-Africa friendship in image and words).
India Writes Network
Author Profile
- Manish Chand is Founder-CEO and Editor-in-Chief of India Writes Network (www.indiawrites.org) and India and World, a pioneering magazine focused on international affairs. He is CEO/Director of TGII Media Private Limited, an India-based media, publishing, research and consultancy company.
Latest entries
India and the WorldNovember 17, 2024From Delhi to Rio: A Shared Agenda, Rise of Global South- India and the WorldOctober 27, 2024Reshaping the world order in Kazan, the BRICS Way
- DiplomacyOctober 24, 2024Jaishankar unveils 5-point agenda for South-friendly world order
- India and the WorldOctober 24, 2024Thaw in Kazan: Modi, Xi unveil roadmap for reviving India-China dialogue
