More than a year after China tapped trade possibilities in Africa through a summit held in Beijing, India will hold its own summit with African countries in an effort to boost trade with the continent. The India-Africa summit — expected to be attended by 17 heads of African states — will be held in New Delhi on April 8 this year. India’s interest in Africa stems from the huge untapped resources in the continent, and the summit — to be preceded by official and ministerial-level meetings — is a response to the Chinese bid to cement trade ties with Africa in its summit held in November 2006.Like China, India realises that Africa is the only place left with most of the world’s other oil reserves being developed by western energy firms. Apart from crude oil, India is interested in importing gold, coal, coke, inorganic chemicals, metallic ores, metal scraps, pearls, precious and semi-precious stones, fertilizers and marble. Africa is a growing market for Indian and Chinese goods. India is particularly sought after for cotton yarn, handloom, drugs, pharmaceuticals, machines and agro-chemicals.India’s trade with Africa has been increasing at a rapid pace. The two-way trade between India and Africa more than doubled between 2001 and 2006: from $5,493 million in 2001-02 to $ 11,822 in 2005-06. In 2006-07, the last available figures showed that the trade stood at $12.24 billion. In comparison, China’s two-way trade stood at $42 billion in 2005, which had increased 10 times since 1995. With Beijing promising $5 billion as loan and credit to Africa, New Delhi too has allocated $1.6 billion, out of which $553 million has been disbursed.Deputy foreign minister Anand Sharma, who was sent to attend the African Union on January 29, invited Algeria, Burkina Faso, Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Libya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Uganda and Zambia for the summit. Prior to the summit, Government officials will meet on April 4 and foreign ministers will meet on April 7.India is implementing a Rs 543 crore pan-African e-network project connecting 53 African nations through a satellite and fibre-optic network and will provide tele-medicine and tele-education to each of the countries.
