The Millennial India
International Chamber of
Commerce, Industry & Agriculture
(MIICCIA) hosted a Business Meet
:“India & Africa : Partners in
Growth, Prosperity and Shared
Destiny”, on the 18th October,
2019.
The conference deliberated to
collectively identify suitable
economic opportunities in African
countries and to create reliable
networks for the Indian business and
industry in a unique format where
the Ambassadors of many countries
shared their perspectives and
business opportunities available in
their respective countries. Senior
Government officials spoke on the
way forward. Representatives from
EXIM Bank, ECGC, WAPCOS spoke about
their partnerships & success stories
with African countries.
MIICCIA’s President Ambassador Anil
Trigunayat in his brief welcome
address said that India has an
umbilical connection with Africa.
Over the last 5 years or so,
lackadaisical approach of the past
has changed to focused priority of
the present. Not only the PM Modi
but also the President, Vice
President and Ministers of India
have crisscrossed all the African
countries engaging and assuring
them. India recognises the strategic
importance of Africa and feels
closer cooperation in security and
defence could ensure fight against
terrorism. India is maintaining its
unique approach of “Share and Care”
as Africans themselves are focusing
on “Trade not Aid” and strengthening
their intra-African connectivity
through the AfCFTA (African
Continental Free Trade Agreement).
Africa, endowed with immense natural
resources, is slated to be the
biggest market with the largest
youngest population in next 2-3
decades. There is a real opportunity
to engage with the Continent to
enhance our bilateral trade beyond
the unreal $70 bn or so. He said
Africa is developing, and developing
fast. As an example, he said that in
Rwanda, medicines are being
delivered by drones in far flung
areas. Ambassador Trigunayat felt
that the second half of this century
will belong to Africa.
The Chief Guest at the event was H.
E. Dr. Jenfan Muswere, Honorable
Deputy Minister of Information &
Communication Technology, Postal and
Courier Services of the Republic of
Zimbabwe. In his speech, the
Minister recalled that India has
always been a partner in Africa’s
political and economic emancipation.
Trade has grown exponentially during
the past decade and is expected to
reach US$ 150 billion by 2020-21. He
thanked India for organizing several
India-Africa Forum Summit (IAFS) at
the Head of State Level to promote
growth of trade & investment. The
Minister felt that the Southern
Africa Development Community (SADC)
presents great opportunity for India
to channel its technological
expertise and the region has the
capacity to absorb India’s
modernized equipment. Reiterating
that Zimbabwe is open for business,
he sought Indian investments
particularly in IT, Pharmaceuticals,
Mining, Power, Water,
Infrastructure, SMEs and Skill
Development. In order to ease
business, the Minister said,
Zimbabwe has taken measures to
reform investment regime and has
extended visa-on-arrival facility to
all
Indian nationals.
The Guest of Honour, Ambassador P.
Harish, Additional Secretary (ED &
States), Ministry of External
Affairs in his speech said that
Prime Minister Modi, in his speech
at the Ugandan parliament on July
25, 2018, laid out the principles of
India’s Africa policy; the 10
guiding principles for India-Africa
engagement. He reminded that India’s
engagement with Africa was on the
basis of equality and transparency,
and emphasized on the need of
connectivity, trade & investment,
capacity building and skill
enhancement. He added that India was
progressing rapidly in the field of
renewable energy and desire to share
its experience & expertise with
African countries. Ambassador Harish
exhorted the African Heads of
Mission to take up the
‘International Solar Alliance’
Agreement with their governments for
urgent ratification of the agreement
by their respective countries.
Ambassador Harish said while
investment is good, trade is a must.
Businesses must not miss on
opportunities. Providing an example,
he said that Africa, particularly
the SADC region, has a thriving
market for second-hand cars which
are imported from other parts of the
world. India’s second-hand
automobile industry has matured
enough to even have digital
platform, but the industry seems to
have failed to take notice of the
African market.
H. E. Mr. Mohamed Maliki, Ambassador
of the Kingdom of Morocco said India
has always been held in high esteem
by Africans, and has been a focus
country. India has been a partner in
the developmental efforts of Africa.
However, more needs to be done in
the social sectors including
education. India has achieved high
standards in education and it could
be shared with
African countries by establishing
institutions of learning on African
soils for training of Africans in
Africa according to the local needs.
Such institutions could be run
jointly by Indians and Africans. No
doubt such institutions need to make
money, but the motto should be to
grow together. He further said that
in the social sector more emphasis
should be provided to agriculture
and drinking water. He also stressed
on the need of more connectivity by
air and sea.
Ambassador Dr. B. Bala Bhaskar,
Joint Secretary (West Asia & North
Africa), Ministry of
External Affairs felt that there is
an emerging shift of strategic
importance from the Gulf to the
West & North African region. More
and more sea ports are coming up in
this region including
Somalia. The region is rich in rock
phosphate and 80% of India’s
requirement is met by this
region. 18% of our energy need come
from this region. Agriculture could
be a major area of
cooperation by India. Dr. Bhaskar
said cooperation in defence
equipment is a promising area. He
added that cooperation in education
& vocational training is promising
as Africa desire to
emulate Indian’s model of
development in the social sectors.
H. E. Ms. Jainaba Jagne, High
Commissioner of the Republic of
Gambia said there has been
exponential growth in the bilateral
relations between India & Africa,
particularly with Gambia. President
Kovind, Union Ministers of India and
several senior government officials
visited Gambia during the last
year and half. She mentioned that
Gambian Minister for Health, Science
& Technology would
arrive on 21st Oct, and the Minister
for Petroleum & Energy on 22nd Oct.
The High
Commissioner said Gambia wants to
learn and emulate Indian model of
development.
H. E. Mr. Michael A. N. N. Oquaye
Esq, High Commissioner of the
Republic of Ghana felt that
contrary to general perception, it
is perhaps unwise to club all
African countries as a single
entity. There
are 54 countries and each one needs
to be dealt with separately as each
one’s need and capability is
different. To strengthen his
argument, he said that all the 54
countries vote individually in UN
and other
international organizations (and
most of the times India benefit by
that). Secondly, the High
Commissioner felt that the terms of
India’s concessional loan was not
the most favourable. Though the
base interest rate is around 1%, the
element of LIBOR is also added which
makes it ‘not so favourable’. His
third suggestion was that though
India extends financing of local
projects, it is limited only to a
part
(around 75%) of the project cost
while there are countries who are
ready to fully finance the project.
Ambassador R. Ravindra, Joint
Secretary (Central & West Africa),
Ministry of External
Affairs said that of late there is a
discernible heightened political
engagement with African
countries over the last few years.
President Kovind made State Visits
to Benin, Gambia and
Guinea. Very recently the
Vice-President visited Sierra Leone
and Comoros. Political engagements
with all the African countries have
been made during the last 5 years.
Now it is time for the
businesses & industries to fill the
gap. Mr. Ravindra felt that it is
not difficult to do business in
Africa, but one needs to be
persistent and consistent. He also
stressed the need of removal of
trade barriers (wherever it exists)
by African governments in the
interest of trade & investment.
He stressed that there must be at
least some semblance of trade
balance.
Providing an overview of
India-Africa Trade & Investment, Ms
Deepali Agarwal, General
Manager, EXIM Bank said that India’s
exports of goods to Africa have
risen at an AAGR of 10%
from 2009 to 2018. Exports of
pharmaceutical products in 2019 was
almost 20% of Africa’s global
imports. Between 2009 to 2018, a
total of 369 Indian FDI projects
were recorded with a total
investment of US$ 32.69 billion.
Mozambique was the largest recipient
of Indian FDI. She further
said India has been pro-actively
engaging with Africa which is
evident from (i) duty free tariff
preference (DETP-LDC) for LDCs; (ii)
Pan-African E-Network, succeeded by
e-VidyaBharati and e-
AarogyaBharati (e-EBAB network
project); and (iii) India-Africa
Forum Summits. She further added
that
EXIM Bank is present across sectors
in order to create sustainable
growth and development in Africa.
EXIM Bank’s partnership goals in
Africa are aligned to SDGs.
Shri Kumar Sumit Saurav, AGM from
Export Credit Guarantee Corporation
(ECGC) said they have
already extended export credit
guarantee of US$ 46 billion to
42,000 exporters in 54 countries in
Africa
under their liberalized underwriting
policy. The 5 largest beneficiaries
are South Africa, Kenya, Egypt,
Nigeria and Tanzania. He added that
ECGC has so far settled ‘claims’ of
Rs. 83,000 Crores. ECGC’s motto is
‘you focus on exports; we cover the
risks’.
Mr. Sanjay Singal, Senior Executive
Director, WAPCOS Ltd. said the
company has successfully
executed 190 projects in diverse
social sectors at a total cost of
US$ 9.43 billion in African
countries.
H. E. Mr. Ernest Rwamucyo, High
Commissioner of the Republic of
Rwanda in his short speech
said Rwanda believes that
bottlenecks are challenges which in
turn mean opportunities.
Connectivity
between India and African countries
has improved considerably. According
to World Bank reports, ease
of doing business in African
countries has improved. Many
countries including Rwanda now
extended
visa-on-arrival to Indian nationals.
Work permits are issued more easily.
Returns on investments are quite
high, sometimes as high as 40%.
Africa is particularly looking for
investments in manufacturing and
development of social sectors.
India’s technologies are quite high,
adaptable and transferable and are
most suitable for Africa. He added
that investment in training for
capacity building will be most
beneficial
in the long term.
H. E. Mr. Gabriel P. Sinimbo, High
Commissioner of the Republic of
Namibia fondly recalled India’s
contribution to Namibia’s freedom
struggle. He said that while
political engagements are of late
picking up, it was not so for a long
time. He added that India’s vision
of engagement as equal
partners and ‘shared destiny’ is the
ideal model for Africa. In his brief
statement, the High
Commissioner requested for more
partnership in manufacturing and
processing for local produce
for value addition. He advised that
there is an old saying in Namibia
that “if you want to go fast,
you go alone, but if you walk slowly
you find many partners”.
A significant number of Ambassadors
& Trade Commissioners from other
African
countries also attended the business
meet. A large number of people from
the Indian businesses
and industries benefitted from the
deliberations. 6 large Indian
companies from industry and
service sectors gave presentations
about their capabilities and details
of their engagement in
African countries.
MIICCIA’s main objective is to
provide a true international
platform to Indian Industry &
Business
to work globally and more
aggressively. The Event was part of
a series of programme titled
“Ambassadors
Speak”. The first was “Exploring
Latin American Business
Opportunities – Prospects &
Potentials, followed
by “India – ASEAN: Connecting for
Business”, and the third one “India
– Central Asia and beyond towards
Growth & Prosperity”. After the
present event on “India – Africa”,
next in the series is and ‘India –
Arab
World”.
18th
October, 2019.