Indo-African economic ties touch a new high

And to further strengthen cooperation between India and Africa, Paul Kagame, president of Rwanda will be leading a high level delegation for the forth coming ?India-Africa Business Partnership? in New Delhi.

?The main objectives of the two day summit from January 19-20, organised by Ficci with the support of ministry of external affairs and ministry of commerce, is to review the what all has been achieved through previous engagements, to create forums for interaction and most importantly to promote people to people contact, ? Lt Gen Kayumba Nyamwasa told FE.

According to him, ?The business summit would bring together the stakeholders of the select priority sectors from the economies of Africa and India at a common platform to share and showcase the trade and investment opportunities for Indian companies in Africa and vice-versa.?

Infact, President Paul Kagame of Rwanda who is coming here as chairman, of East African Committee. ? We want to deepen the relationship with India not only bi-laterally, but on a multilateral front too. Several sectors have been identified where there is plenty of scope for both investment and cooperation including Indian Technical and Economical Cooperation (ITEC), railways, infrastructure, agriculture, education, and health,? Nyamwasa pointed out.

?We also need a greater inflow of educational personnel – teachers, professors – to our country. Under the ITEC, our civil servants are befitting from Short Training Courses,? said the envoy. With information and communication technology becoming one of the growth drivers globally, there is a big scope for collaborative effort in the arena of telecom networking. ?Now that we are engaged in a major rebuilding exercise, the current Indo-Rwandan talks will help us get the state-of-the-art technology,? he said.

The Rwandan envoy said that, ?Energy is another area of interest. Luckily Rwanda enjoys huge reserves of natural gas, methane in particular. And, we are keen to get help from India in solar energy, bio-mass, and an investor who can put in money in the power sector.?

The upsurge in both trade and investment has been driven by the progressive economic reconstruction in Africa catalysed by stabilizing economies, opening of markets and increasing privatisation facilitating public-private partnerships in all major projects, he added. With Rwanda holding the chairmanship of the EAC wants to promote East Africa as a single tourist destination and introduction of a common visa for tourists and business persons especially in India, the envoy said.

The stage is set for deeper business engagement both in terms of trade as well as investment.