adminand exploitative in their dealings with the continent, African Union chairperson Mr Jean Ping has said.
Mr Ping was opening the Africa-India Trade Ministers conference at the AU headquarters here at the weekend, ahead of the summit to be held today and tomorrow.
He said: “As part of the developing region of the world, Africa and India share a common aspiration for an inclusive and equitable global trading system that is development friendly and devoid of some imbalances against the developing countries.”
Zimbabwe has already adopted the Look East Policy which has already boosted trade with China, India and other countries in the East.
Mr Ping said in spite of the geographical and cultural proximity of Africa and India, the level of their co-operation had for a long time remained relatively low..
He said it was against this background that heads of state and government in 2008 established the Africa-India Forum Summit and adopted the framework of co-operation as a blueprint for the enhancement of the partnership.
“The rise of India as a global economic power and its high and sustained rate of economic growth, the rich endowment of Africa in natural resources that are currently in great global demand, the commitment of Africa to deepen economic co-operation with the emerging powers of the South as a means of lessening its heavy dependence on the economies of the traditional partners in the North and the large and growing population of Africa and India are factors that have created opportunities for the expansion of trade investment flows between the two regions,” he said.
This was the reason, he said, that Africa invested a lot of human resources and time in the Doha Round of the World Trade Organisation negotiations.
He said there was need for the development of a friendly, multilateral trading that enabled the continent to increase its share of the global trade by one percent more than what it was getting through aid.
Mr Ping challenged the trade ministers in the two regions to come up with ideas and recommendations that enabled them to take full advantage of the opportunities available.
He reiterated that the trade between India, Africa and other emerging economies was not supposed to be exploitative and manipulative, as the one currently obtaining with the North.
“This required that Africa’s exports to India should not comprise of mainly primary commodities but also manufactured goods and valued added products as well,” he said.
India’s Commerce and Industry Minister, Mr Anand Sharma, told the conference that trade volumes between Africa and India surpassed the US$46 billion mark last year and were expected to reach over US$70 billion by 2015.
Mr Sharma said Indian private companies invested in excess of US$25 billion in a wide range of sectors – telecoms, automobile information technologies, pharmaceuticals and agriculture, among others.
“I believe there is immense scope to take the present levels of trade and investment between India and Africa to new heights. In view of the opportunity provided by the Summit, we have organised, as India a show since yesterday (Friday May20 in Addis Ababa),” he said.
The show will emphasise the heritage of India, the story of its development journey and its achievements so far.
Online Reporter