Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced oodles of sops for African nations in his address to the plenary session of the second Africa-India Forum Summit.
India on Tuesday made a clear statement about the seriousness of its engagement with African nations with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announcing oodles of sops for African nations in his address to the plenary session of the second Africa-India Forum Summit.
Major announcements include over $6 billion worth of financial support in terms of lines of credit worth $5 billion over next three years and the rest in aids for projects besides over a dozen capacity building projects across the continent.
The prime minister delivered his speech even as a brief power outage rendered the venue partially dark. He dubbed the summit as historic. That it was the first time that leaders of India and Africa were meeting on African soil on such a scale. A total of 17 African nations were represented at the summit either by heads of the states or some other leaders.
Dubbing the India-Africa partnership as an idea whose time had come, he said, “India will never forget Africa’s role in inspiring our own struggle for national liberation. It was here that Mahatma Gandhi developed his political philosophy and developed the concepts of non-violence and peaceful resistance.”
He announced setting up of an India-Africa Business Council to promote involvement of the private sector. “There is a new economic growth story emerging from Africa. Africa possesses all the prerequisites to become a major growth pole of the world,” he said, and drew upon the need for a new spirit of solidarity among developing countries. He then offered to share India’s experience in nation-building with Africa.
Stating that the current international economic and political situation was far from favourable, particularly for developing countries, he said, that even as the global economy was recovering from the economic crisis, fresh political upheavals were taking place. “The world faces new challenges in assuring food and energy security. Global institutions of governance are outmoded and under stress,” he said.
President of Equatorial Guinea Obiang Nguema Mbasogo later said, “Indo-African co-operation is the proof of the disparity in the growth world over. It’s a co-operation that both should gain from - Resources from Africa and science and technology from India. African-Indian partnership is very strong. Our massive presence in this forum is a proof of that.”
President of the African Union Commission Jean Ping said, “Both the sides are the part of Gondwana Land and share a painful history of colonial past. We have now adopted a common position on many issues. We have benefited from e-network and telemedicine projects as also from five low cost housing projects and three research institutes.”
This time for Africa!
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