‘Africa-India can become engine of growth for world’, says Jaitley

New Delhi: Highlighting the need for a better partnership between India and Africa, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday pointed out that both were rapidly growing economies which had the potential to become the engine of growth for the world.

“Today India and Africa are most rapidly growing economies in the world. While Africa is a continent of future, India is an emerging economy. As the global economy continues to recover slowly form the global financial and economical crisis, India and Africa together may well become the engine of growth for the entire world,” Jaitley said in his address at the India-Africa Forum Summit.

Jaitley also said India can contribute its capital, skills and technological capabilities to sustain Africa’s growth.

“Africa in turn can support India’s growth through mutually beneficial resource partnership,” he added.

Jaitley said India-Africa trade relations have grown tremendously over the last decade.

“Our exports to Africa has grown almost six fold from U.S $ 5.6 billion in 2004-05 to U. S $ 32.8 billion in 2014-15,” he added.

Jaitley further said India is in the process of setting up training institute in different African countries encompassing the wide array of areas ranging from agriculture, rural development, food processing to information technology, public private partnership and vocational training.

“Our model of use of renewable energy, affordable health management and agricultural experience in technology are important source of relevance to Africa,” he added. (ANI)