The Hindu : India pledges $500m to west African nations

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 02, 2004

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India pledges $500m to west African nations

By Our Diplomatic Correspondent

NEW DELHI, MARCH 1. India today pledged $500 million in the form of concessional credit facilities to eight west African countries — Burkina Faso, Chad, Cote d'Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Mali and Senegal — who, together with India, form TEAM-9 or Techno-Economic Approach for Africa-India Movement.

TEAM-9 Ministers, who signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU), agreed that a Heads of State/Government meeting would be held regularly.

The MoU also set up a Council of Ministers comprising Foreign Ministers or any other Minister, as well as a Joint Business Council under the new regional cooperation mechanism.

"It was decided that the TEAM-9 cooperation mechanism will operate at Government, institutional and private sector levels, sharing various types of expertise, intellectual and physical resources as well as economic opportunities for promoting welfare, growth and prosperity of the people," a joint statement issued after the meeting said.

Stressing that transfer of technologies was envisaged under the TEAM-9 mechanism, the statement spoke of specific projects in areas such as agriculture, small-scale industries, rural development, pharmaceuticals, telecommunications and energy.

According to the MoU, the new regional cooperation mechanism was being created "recognising" the crucial role that South-South cooperation can play in this era of globalisation, liberalisation and privatisation.

In remarks to the press, the External Affairs Minister, Yashwant Sinha, said after the meeting: "We have talked about food security and freedom from hunger, which will mean cooperation in agriculture and water management."

Denying that India looked to African countries in terms of votes at the United Nations, Mr. Sinha said: "As far as political issues are concerned, we have not discussed them here today. We will let that evolve as we go along."

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