African summit on April 8-9

More than a year after China talked business in November 2006 as it hosted an Africa summit in Beijing, India is going to hold its own summit with African countries in an effort to boost trade and investment with the continent.

The India-Africa summit, which is expected to be attended by at least 17 heads of African governments, will be held in New Delhi next week.

India8217;s interest in Africa stems from the huge untapped resources in the continent, and the summit 8211; which will be preceded by official and ministerial-level meetings 8211; is a response to the Chinese bid to cement trade ties with Africa in its summit held in November 2006.

India8217;s trade with Africa has been increasing at a rapid pace in the recent years and this can be gauged from the fact that the two-way trade between India and Africa more than doubled between 2001 to 2006: from US 5,493 million 2001-02 to US 11,822 2005-06. And in 2006-07, the last available figures show, that the trade stood at US 12.24 billion.

India, with a growing economy and an energy-guzzler, has found that Africa is the only place left to go as most of the world8217;s other big oil reserves are already being developed by major western energy firms.

India feels that though its trade with African nations is witnessing tremendous growth, it is yet to achieve its true potential. So, apart from crude oil, India is interested in importing gold, coal, coke and briquettes, inorganic chemicals, metallic ores, metal scraps, pearls, precious and semi-precious stones, fertilisers and marbles.

Africa is also a growing market for Indian goods, just like Chinese ones, and India is particularly sought after for the clothes cotton yarn and handloom, drugs and pharmaceuticals, machines and instruments and agro-chemicals.

To boost this economic and commercial partnership with Africa, India8217;s one of the deputy foreign ministers, Anand Sharma was sent by the government to attend the African Union on January 29, where he met the heads of states and foreign ministers of several African countries and extended invitation, on behalf of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Before the Summit of the heads of states on April 8 this year, senior officials of the governments will be meeting on April 4 and the Foreign ministers meeting will take place on April 7.