The 14th India-Africa project partnership summit with the theme “Partners in Development, Building New Synergies” being organized by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and EXIM Bank of India in New Delhi will be kicked off today. The three day Summit brings together a galaxy of political heavy weights, business honchos, trade experts, policy – makers from India and African countries.
Billed as one of the most effective bilateral powerful business forums that catalyze track 1 and track 2 partnerships, the Summit , over the years has helped evolve business synergies. From nowhere, India has now perched up as the second highest business partner in the African continent, after China and the US, which used to be at the number one slot, is now behind India at a third position. European countries, which have a colonial legacy in some of the African countries are relegated to the background (See our edit in www.trendsnafrica.com titled “Scramble for Africa bounties, 16/03/2019).
The Summit, which is slated to hold a record number of B2B meetings between Indian and African businessmen will be attended by 33 ministerial delegations from 21 countries in Africa. Significantly, the core focus of the summit will be agriculture and allied services, infrastructure and connectivity, power and energy, including renewable, finance, manufacturing and the list goes on. In all, a CII communication says there will be 540 multi -sectoral projects on the negotiating table for the businessmen to finalize their deal.
It may be noted that when Prime Minister Narendra Modi assumed office five years back , he announced a line credit if US$ 10 billion to countries in Africa. A number of countries have taken advantage of this bounty and have tied up with Indian companies for implementing various projects ranging from building port terminals, supply of drinking water, implementing healthcare schemes, agriculture related projects including food processing, education etc. Yet the general criticism is that Indian companies are less aggressive in their investment plans as compared to the Chinese, which has a huge presence in the infrastructure sector in almost all countries in the region. Besides, hina doubles as an arm supplier mainly to Sub Saharan African countries.
“ Chinese involvement in Africa has attracted fair degree of controversies also since the general perception is that it (China) has made the region more dependent on outside help than unleashing its own potential to build the development tempo. Also, there is a growing perception that Chinese liberal loans and concessions may look attractive but have hidden strings and agenda. Some of the contracts are couched up in such a way that the utilities like power plants, port terminals, roads etc would vest with Chinese in case of a loan default. Some of these clauses are opaque and the African countries driven by their indebtedness seldom care to read the fine print,” says, Sheila Sudhakaran, editor of Africa4U and Trendsnafrica, who was earlier the Africa head of an Indian apex chamber and an expert on the subject.
Amongst the notable speakers at the Summit are Mr Suresh Pabbhu, Minister of Commerce and Industry, Government of India, H E Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, Vice President of the Republic of Ghana and H E Dr Ibrahima Kassory FOFANA, Prime Minister of the Republic of Guinea and a host of high ranking policy makers and businessmen from both the regions.
Africa4U has talked to a few Indian businessmen about the prospect of the Summit in the light of the coming general elections to be held shortly across India. They feel that not many big ticket announcement from India side on account of the election code in operation. But businesses seem to be upbeat about the prospects since many African countries are now expecting a good time given that there is good prospect for the commodity prices including oil to spiral up in the future.
