IT, SERVICES, DRUGS & PHARMA SECTORS IDENTIFIED
TO ENHANCE INDO-AFRICA TRADE
RUDY INAUGURATES SEMINAR ON
FOCUS-AFRICA
In order to give an impetus
to the bilateral trade between India and Sub-Saharan Africa, sectors
like drugs & pharmaceuticals, information technology, services
have been identified as potential areas for cooperation.
Shri Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Minister of State for Commerce & Industry,
stated this while inaugurating one-day awareness seminar on "Focus
Africa and the Export Potential in Sub-Saharan African Region",
which was jointly organised by CAPEXIL, PLEXCONCIL AND CHEMEXCIL
here today. Shri Rudy asked the African nations to avail the
expertise of Indian pharma companies, which have the ability to
manufacture entire range of anti-retroviral drugs for treatment
of AIDS patients and also have the advantage of low pricing as
compared to western multinational companies. Shri S.Ramasundaram,
Joint Secretary, Ministry of Commerce & Industry also addressed
the seminar highlighting the objectives of the Focus-Africa Programme
wherein diplomats of Sub-Saharan countries were present along
with representatives of trade and industry.
Shri Rudy informed that
the total trade between India and Sub-Saharan Africa has registered
a growth of 24% during 2001-02 at US$ 4205 million as compared
to US$ 3405.01 million in 2000-01.
Stating that there is further scope for investments into Africa
and also African investments in India, the Minister pointed out
agro processing & packaging, engineering, textiles, information
technology and leather as the potential areas for cooperation
and said that an aggressive strategy needed to be worked out to
realise this. He also told that under the Focus-Africa programme,
which aims at enhancing the bilateral trade and investment between
India and Sub-Saharan Africa, EXIM Bank has so far extended
28 lines of credit (LOC’s) for an aggregate value of Rs. 414 crore
to enhance trade with that region. ECGC has revised the credit
rating of some of these countries, which resulted in reduction
of rate of premium, he added.
India’s trade in the region is largely
with 10 countries, namely South Africa, Nigeria, Mauritius, ivory
Coast, Tanzania, Kenya, Benin, Ghana, Ethiopia & Senegal.
These 10 countries accounted for more than 81% of India’s total
trade with Sub-Saharan Africa during 2000-01. As a sequel to Focus
Africa programme senior level visits to South Africa, Ethiopia
and Uganda have been undertaken and a number of Buyer-Seller Meets
are being organised by Export Promotion Councils both here and
in Sub-Saharan region. This was the sixth seminar in the series
of seminars co-hosted by CAPEXIL, CHEMEXCIL and PLEXCONCIL on
"Focus Africa" during this year.
