india-africa

2nd meeting of the India-Africa Trade Ministers, New Delhi
The Union Minister of Commerce, Industry and Textiles of India, Sh. Anand Sharma, and the
African Trade and Industry Ministers met in New Delhi for the 2nd meeting of the India-Africa
Trade Ministers.
Backgrounder: The ‘India-Africa Trade Ministers Dialogue’ is an annual event, of which the 1st
meeting was held in Addis Ababa in May, 2011, on the occasion of the 2nd Africa-India Forum
Summit held at Head of State level.
Key Points at the 2nd meeting of the India-Africa Trade Ministers:-
 2nd Meeting of the India-Africa Trade Ministers
 The India-Africa Business Council (IABC) launched/meets for the first time.
 India Africa Revise Trade Target to US$ 90 billion by 2015
 Cotton Technical Assistance Programme in the C-4 Countries (Burkina Faso, Benin, Chad, Mali), Malawi, Nigeria
and Uganda Launched
 India Africa Stress Centrality of Development in Doha Round
The India-Africa Business Council (IABC) launched:
 The Ministers launched the India-Africa Business Council (IABC) co-chaired by Mr. Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman,
Bharti Group from India side and Mr. Alhaji Aliko Dangote, GCON, President, Chief Executive, Dangote Group,
Nigeria from African side. The Council will suggest the way forward on enhancing economic and commercial
Current Affairs Published on www.gktoday.in from January 1, 2012 to
September 10, 2012
relations between India and Africa and also identify and address issues which hinder growth of economic
partnership between India and Africa.
India-Africa bilateral trade at US $ 90 Bn by 2015:
 Indian and African Ministers set the target of India-Africa bilateral trade as US $ 90 bn by 2015. In the year 2011,
India-Africa bilateral trade has reached US $ 60 bn.
The Cotton Technical Assistance Programme in the C-4 countries:
 The Cotton Technical Assistance Programme in the C-4 countries (Burkina Faso, Benin, Chad, Mali), Malawi,
Nigeria and Uganda was also launched. It is an initiative of the Government of India under the umbrella of the
‘India-Africa Forum Summit’ towards helping the above-mentioned cotton growing countries of Africa to build
capacity, technical expertise and thereby competitiveness in the field.
Integrated Clusters:
 The proposed Integrated Clusters (Integrated Textiles as well as other clusters) to be set up by India in African
countries expected to bring together investments of US $ 350 mn and generate employment for 60,000 textile
workers in Africa.
Centrality of Development in Doha Round:
 India and Africa reiterated their commitment towards the centrality of the development dimension and the
expeditious completion of the Least Developed Countries’ (LDC) issues in the Doha Development Agenda, and
agreed that by concluding the Doha Round of negotiations with development at its core, the multilateral trading
system envisaged by the WTO would be strengthened.
 India and Africa share a common platform on many issues of importance to developing countries and their joint
efforts have played a key role in preventing any dilution of the development agenda.
Pan-African Institutions being set up by the Indian Government:
For capacity building and human resource development across many areas, Pan-African Institutions being set up by the
Indian Government under the umbrella of the ‘India-Africa Forum Summit’. These are:-
 India-Africa Institute of Foreign Trade,
 India-Africa Diamond Institute,
 India-Africa Institute of Educational Planning and Administration
 India-Africa Institute of Information Technology
 India-Africa Food Processing Cluster,
 India-Africa Integrated Textile Cluster,
 India-Africa Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting,
 India-Africa University for Life and Earth Sciences,
 India-Africa Institute of Agriculture and Rural Development, and
 India-Africa Civil Aviation Academy.