Second Africa-India Forum Summit

On May 24-25, 2011, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh attended the second Africa-India Forum Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. A ministerial meeting, in which Anand Sharma, Minister for Commerce & Industry, led the Indian side, preceded it.

Addressing the meet, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made a strong call to African countries to work collectively with India to combat the scourge of terrorism.

"Apart from bilateral cooperation, India and Africa can and should work together on regional and international issues," he said at the retreat attended by leaders from 15 African countries.

Mr Singh also highlighted the need to chart new pathways of engagement, take stock of the global economic and political situation and review the progress the two sides have made in their cooperation in the last three years.

Singh noted that the current international economic and political situation was far from easy, particularly for developing countries and spoke about "new challenges" confronting the world in meeting the requirements of food and energy security.

Manmohan Singh announced a mammoth $5 billion credit line to Africa for various development projects, reflecting India’s growing ties with the resource-rich continent.

He also declared an additional $700 million package to establish new institutions and training programmes across the continent.

Major sops offered during the Summit meeting were:

• $5 billion line of credit for 3 years
• Additional $700 million for new institutions, training programmes
• $300 million for Ethio-Djibouti rail line
• India-Africa virtual university with 10,000 new scholarships
• India-Africa business council
• $2 million for African Union mission in Somalia
• Increased access of African airlines to India in next 3 years
• India-Africa food processing and textiles clusters
• More than 22,000 scholarships to African students
• An India-Africa centre for medium-range weather forecasting, university for life and earth sciences, institute of agriculture and rural development
• Soil, water and tissue-testing laboratories, regional farm science centres, seed production-cum-demonstration centres, material testing laboratories for highways
• Institutes for English language training, information technology, entrepreneurship development and vocational training
• Rural technology parks, food testing laboratories, food processing business incubation centres and centres on geo-informatics applications and rural development.

The eight-page Addis Ababa Declaration adopted at the end of the two-day Africa-India Forum Summit said the African members of the UN Security Council and India affirm their commitment to coordinate closely during India's tenure as non-permanent member of the Council. “In this context, we underscore the imperative of urgent and comprehensive reform of the UN system. We share the view that the UN should function in a transparent, efficient and effective manner and that the composition of its central organs must reflect contemporary realities.” “The expansion of the UN Security Council, in permanent and non-permanent categories of membership, with increased participation of developing countries in both categories, is central to the process of reform and for enhancing the credibility of the United Nations,” the declaration read.

The joint declaration also expressed support for an International Convention prohibiting the development, production, stockpiling and use of nuclear weapons, leading to their destruction. It called for negotiating specific steps to reduce and finally eliminate nuclear weapons, leading to a world free from all weapons of mass destruction as envisaged in the Rajiv Gandhi Action Plan of 1988.

The first India-Africa Forum Summit in New Delhi in April 2008 produced a ‘Framework of Cooperation’. However, bureaucratic procedures in the African Union and in India slowed down the momentum. It took the two sides two years to finalize the joint ‘Plan of Action,’ overshooting the deadline by a year. But thereafter, more concerted efforts have been evident. Throughout 2010, New Delhi played host to Presidents and Prime Ministers from Africa. India’s Vice-President as well as key ministers also travelled to several African capitals.

With Africa’s rise no longer in doubt, India is concentrating on building partnerships at bilateral, regional and continental levels and not seeking a role in internal affairs of African States or intra-African conflicts. It reacted cautiously during the recent troubles in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and the Ivory Coast.

Africa is host to 90% of world’s Cobalt, 50% of Gold, 98% of Chromium, 64% of Manganese & 34% of Uranium. Trade between India and Africa crossed US $ 46 billion in 2010 and is expected to reach US $ 70 billion by 2015.

Indian private sector entrepreneurs have already made investments in excess of US $ 25 billion in a wide range of sectors from telecom, automobiles, IT, pharmaceuticals and agriculture. Bharti’s $ 8.5 billion acquisition of Zain in Africa is one of the largest outbound investments by India. According to a FICCI study, Africa is on the brink of an economic take off.

At present India’s OFDI is the 9th largest source of FDI into Africa. Among the Indian groups that have substantial presence in Africa include Bharti Airtel, Karuturi Global, the world’s largest producer of cut-roses, Tata Africa Holdings also has a strong presence in over 10 African countries with investments exceeding US$ 100 million. Essar has steel, oil and gas and telecom assets across Africa. The other players include M&M, Larsen & Toubro (L&T) and Shapoorji Pallonji.