New Delhi, Boosting trade between Africa and India will improve the confidence of the trade partnership for both countries, thus contributing to strong India, said Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu.
‘Sharing cordial bilateral relations, India and Africa have been regarded as the ‘partners in progress’. In the past 5 years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has emphasised the economic potential of Africa as the Indian Business Community is making a great difference in shaping the economy,’ said Mr Prabhu taking to micro-blogging site Twitter.
India’s total trade with the African region during 2017-18 was USD 62.69 billion (8.15 per cent of India’s total trade with the World).
India’s share of exports to African countries as a percentage of India’s total exports to the world was of the order of 8.21 per cent in 2017-18.Africa region’s share in India’s total imports from the World accounted for 8.12 per cent in 2017-18.
The Commerce Ministry and Indian High Commissions and Embassies of eleven African countries arranged an interaction over Digital Video Conference (DVC) over two days, on May 3 and 6 with the Indian business community in Africa.
The interactions with Indian Diaspora were held in Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Zambia, and Mauritius, Nigeria, Mozambique, Ghana, South Africa, Botswana, and Madagascar. The initiative was held in order to build an effective engagement with the Indian Diaspora in Africa in order to further deepen and strengthen India-Africa trade ties.
The DVC was attended by over 400 members of Indian business community in 11 African countries.Today, African countries present immense opportunities for India with the world’s largest land mass, 54 countries, a population growing to be almost equivalent to that of India, huge mineral resources, oil wealth, a youthful population, falling poverty levels and increasing consumption patterns.
Thus, Africa has a huge demand for new business models for market entry, stable market access, entrepreneurship and investments in transport, telecom, tourism, financial services, real estate and construction.
‘This initiative of the Commerce Ministry emphasises the need for a multipronged strategy for further enhancing trade and investment ties between the two regions.
Commerce Ministry recognises that for formulating an effective export strategy it is imperative to engage the Indian business community in Africa for mutual gain for both sides as trade relations between the people of same origin instill greater confidence amongst trade partners,’ according to a statement here on Tuesday.
The Indian community in Africa is playing a vital role in all fields like politics, business and education. As per the latest available estimates the current strength of the Indian Diaspora in the African countries is 2.8 million out of those 2.5 million are PIOs and rest 2,20,967 are NRIs.
Total overseas Indians are 30.83 million of which 17.83 million are PIOs and 13 million are NRIs. (Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, 2016). Indian Diaspora in Africa constitutes 9.11 per cet of the total Diaspora of India.
The inherent strength of India in Africa is its rich and vast Diaspora which has established strong links with the political, economic and social fabric of the African continent. In order to formulate a strategy to boost India-Africa Trade and Investment, the Indian Diaspora in Africa has to be leveraged further in order to ensure that the strategy is effective.