Apr
10
India’s turn to woo Africa
April 10, 2008 | Tagged Africa, India | Leave a Comment
By Meryam
The first ever India-Africa summit concluded Wednesday, after two days in New Delhi. Fourteen African leaders attended, including Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and Ethiopia’s Meles Zenawi. India pledged access to its domestic markets, an increase in development financing and educational opportunities for Africa, while looking for African support in its bid for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.
Key concerns identified by African and Indian leaders were rising food and oil prices, which negate efforts for poverty reduction and economic growth. Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh promised to help Africa with agriculturual technology, so its food needs could be met through domestic production. In fact, reports suggest that Africa would do well to develop its agricultural industry, largely due to its organic and unique produce, which as yet do not obtain the competitive global market prices. Due to IMF and World Bank policies, many self-sustaining African countries have become net importers.
Prime minister Singh pledged over $500 million to development projects in the continent, as well as a duty free tariff scheme to some 34 African countries.
India also plans to strengthen its local capabilities by creating regional and pan-African institutions of higher education, especially in science, IT and vocational training. “As an immediate measure, we propose to double our long-term scholarships for undergraduates, postgraduates and higher courses and increase the number of training slots under our technical assistance programmes from 1,100 to 1,600 every year,” said the Indian prime minister.
Many see India’s wooing of Africa as a balance against China’s interest in the continent. Despite India’s historic relationship with Africa, from the supporting of various independence movements to the South African origins of Mahatma Gandhi’s civil disobedience movement, trade between India and Africa is only half of that with China. India also recently lost several lucrative oil exploration contracts to Beijing.
India’s minister of state for external affairs, Anand Sharma, however, denies ‘competition with any country’ regarding its cooperation with Africa. “Those who make such an unfair comparison are ignorant about the deep, time-tested ties between Africa and India,” he said.
“We do not have to embark on a new journey to discover Africa. The peoples of Africa are aware that what India has to offer is not the same as what others have to offer. We believe in capacity building and developing Africa’s human resources.”
