New Delhi: More than 400 delegates from Africa and 300 from India will gather here from March 17 to 19 as the 14th CII-EXIM Bank Conclave on India-Africa Project Partnerships kicks off to pave way for a whole range of cross-border trade ties.
The conclave will host more than 31 senior ministers from 21 African countries apart from business delegates from 37 countries.
Bilateral trade between India and Africa totalled 62.66 billion dollars in 2017-18, marking an increase of 22 per cent from the previous year.
“The conclave will mark the pre-eminence of India-Africa partnership in the area of South-South cooperation at a time when the global economy is faced with intractable challenges that stem from rising protectionism and trade conflicts,” said an official statement on Monday.
The bilateral partnership is augmented by India’s ascendancy as the fastest growing major economy, as well as Africa’s new economic dynamism illustrated by some of the sub-Saharan economies which are among the top 10 fastest growing economies in the world, it said.
Since its inception in 2005, the annual conclave brings senior ministers, policy makers, officials, business leaders, bankers, technologists, start-up entrepreneurs and other professionals on a common platform.
The deliberations will be guided by long-term goals and objectives, including scaling up India-Africa bilateral trade volume to 150 billion dollars in the next few years, enabling geographical and product diversification of Indian exports to Africa, enhancing manufacturing exports of Africa by optimal utilisation of duty free tariff preference scheme, and expanding Indian investments in areas like infrastructure, agriculture and food-processing, energy, services, IT and knowledge industries.
[source_without_link]ANI[/source_without_link]