Team 9 meet: India offers 500m

Taking the lead under a new initiative with eight West African countries called Team 9, India today decided to extend concessional credit fa...

Taking the lead under a new initiative with eight West African countries called Team 9, India today decided to extend concessional credit facilities worth 500 million for socio-economic projects in these countries.

New Delhi also offered access to training resources within the country while letting scientists and other experts from here to travel to the African countries.

Foreign ministers of the Team-9 nations held talks here today and decided to set up a business council for facilitating identification, entrepreneurship and implementation of specific projects.

8216;8216;We have decided to have a long-term and sustained relationship with the eight African countries,8217;8217; External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha said after the deliberations.

New Delhi also signed a memorandum of understanding with the eight West African countries Burkinafaso, Chad, Cote d8217;Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Mali and Senegal to evolve a mechanism of cooperation. Food security and freedom from hunger, health security and job security were the focus of the discussion with the group identifying agriculture, pharmaceuticals and health services, employment opportunities, small and medium enterprises, information technology and telecommunciations, transport and energy besides rural development as areas of cooperation.

Under the MOU, Team-9 countries would promote the development of science and technology by creating a mechanism to transfer technology. While stressing the need for mutual cooperation in international fora, the MOU also seeks to accelerate economic growth, social progress and cultural development.

Describing the initiative as a 8216;8216;wonderful concept8217;8217;, Senegalese Foreign Minister Cheikh Tidiani Gadios, who spoke on behalf of the eight countries, said India and West Africa have opened a 8216;8216;new path8217;8217; to take the traditional cooperation between them to a higher level.