Besides, the 40 African leaders and at least two dozen ministers who are expected to attend the PM’s banquet will be ferried in new luxury cars, including Mercedes Benz and Toyota Hybrid, and accommodated in 10 five-star hotels. The best known example is Bangalore-based Karuturi Global, that sought to become the world’s largest food producer by acquiring 100,000 hectares of land in Ethiopia, but ended up on the brink of bankruptcy.
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Asked about the political instability in a few African nations, Kant said: “We don’t take a short-term view of our relationship with Africa”.
Kejriwal called for joint formulating of strategies to face challenges common to Delhi and African cities. “And value addition also now requires technology”, he said.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Sunday strongly pitched for reforms within the United Nations Security Council and identified that neither India with nearly a sixth of the world’s inhabitants nor the most important continent Africa in phrases of quantity of nations have been on board.
“It is said that lakhs of years back, this (India and Africa) was a single land mass. Later, due to the Indian Ocean, it split into two”, he said.
The 4th India-Africa Trade Ministers’ Meeting (IATMM) was held in New Delhi on the eve of the 3rd India-Africa Forum Summit on October 29, 2015 in Delhi.
Sushma Swaraj, who earlier inaugurated the India-Africa Friendship Park right here, stated that saplings of “everlasting friendship and mutual cooperation” must be nurtured in an setting of mutual understanding. “The continent’s progress will add great stability and momentum to the global economy and benefit India as well”, he added.
Speaking on the occasion, Ms Swaraj said, flowers signify love, friendship and brotherhood and thats why India chose to build Friendship Rose garden to symbolise India-Africa friendship. “The road map for the future will reflect our shared vision and goals, and our respective strengths and capabilities”, he added.
“Our areas of focus will continue to be on human resource development, institution building, infrastructure, clean energy, agriculture, health, education and skill development”, Modi said.
He also mentioned the similarities between India and Africa, which represent one-third of the world’s population and where 65 percent of the people are below the age of 35.
Industry leaders from both sides also held a meeting of the India-Africa Business Council (IABC) and discussed ways to consolidate complementarities and explore new opportunities for economic cooperation in various fields.
“We will certainly raise our partnership to a much higher level in the years ahead”.
India also has a total investment of United States dollars 30 to 35 billion in Africa. She said that in the past 15 years cooperation between the two had reached a stage where India’s trade with Africa has gone up 20 times and today was more than $70 billion.
Now Modi, self-styled chief salesman of a “Make in India” export drive, wants to capitalise on an economic slowdown in China to highlight India as an alternative partner for trade and investment.
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“The dog squad has been pressed in to conduct anti-sabotage checks and other security checks of areas which will be frequented by the heads of state and other delegates of the India-Africa summit”.
