The Hindu : Front Page : India doubles credit to Africa

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Wednesday, Apr 09, 2008
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India doubles credit to Africa

Sandeep Dikshit

Duty-free tariff preference scheme for exports from 50 least developed countries

India to double long-term scholarships
for African students
Focus on improving Africa’s railways, IT, telecom and power sectors

Photo: Rajeev Bhatt

Reaching out: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh greets South African President Thabo Mbeki as President of Tanzania Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete and Ghana President John Agyekum look on at the inauguration of the India-Africa Forum Summit in New Delhi on Tuesday. —

NEW DELHI: India on Tuesday announced a duty-free tariff preference scheme for exports from 50 least developed countries (LDCs). Of these, 34 are in Africa.

Declaring open the India-Africa Forum Summit here, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also said that credit assistance to Africa would be more than doubled for five years from the next fiscal.

India planned to enhance the Foreign Office’s Aid to Africa budget to execute human skills improvement projects. Over the next 5-6 years, it proposed to undertake projects against grants in excess of over $ 500 million.

Dr. Singh said India would double the number of long-term scholarships for African students and effect a 50 per cent increase in technical assistance training slots. He also proposed the setting up of an India-Africa Volunteer Corps to undertake development works in public health, informal education and women’s empowerment.

The scope of activities could be widened with the experience gained through the projects in these areas.

The summit, being attended by six Presidents and senior Ministers from the continent, is India’s most ambitious venture in the post-Cold War era to forge closer trade, economic and political ties with the continent.

The invitations were restricted to countries heading the several African regional associations.

The announcements were warmly welcomed by several African heads of state. Uganda’s President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni complained in a lighter vein that the initiatives “knocked out” a proposal he intended to make.

Dr. Singh said the preferential market access scheme would cover 94 per cent of India’s total tariff lines and 92.5 per cent of the global exports of all LDCs.

Noting that in the last five years, India extended a line of credit (LoC) worth $ 2.15 billion, he said, “Over the next five years, we will more than double this amount and offer an additional LoC amounting to $ 5.4 billion, both bilaterally and to the regional economic communities of Africa.”

The summit unanimously accepted the drafts of the Delhi Declaration and the India-Africa Framework for Cooperation. The two texts intend to consolidate the discussions held over the past few days to redefine and re-energise the old partnership and civilisational links.

Dr. Singh said the lines of credit and other initiatives were aimed at improving Africa’s railways and information technology, telecom and power sectors, besides strengthening physical connectivity. In this task, India would reach out to the private sector and make full use of public-private partnerships.

He spelt out the kind of partnership India wished to pursue with Africa. It would be a departure from the approach of the West, which in the pre and post-colonial eras, focussed on draining the continent of its mineral resources. India was keen on utilising Africa’s energy resources but it visualised a partnership “anchored in the fundamental principles of equality, mutual respect and mutual benefit … the objective is to cooperate with Africa in its efforts to achieve economic vibrancy, peace, stability and self-reliance.”

Dr. Singh hoped the Delhi Declaration and the India-Africa Framework for Cooperation would provide the blueprint for engagement in the coming years.

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