India's Initiatives To Enhance Regional And Bilateral Trade And Investment Relations

India has undertaken a series of important initiatives as also institutional framework to create an enabling trade and business environment to facilitate and enhance bilateral trade and commercial with the Africa countries. The key programmers guiding these initiatives include the Focus Africa programme, IBSA Initiative, TEAN-9 Initiative, and CII-EXIM India- Africa Project Partnership Conclaves. 'Focus Africa' Programme The Government of India launched an integrated 'Focus Africa' programme in 2002-03 to significantly enhance India's trade with Africa. The main objective of the programme was to increase the interaction between the two regions by identifying the potential areas of bilateral trade and investment. The 'Focus Africa' programme initially focused on Sub-Saharan Africa with emphasis on seven major trading partners in the region: Nigeria, South Africa, Mauritius, Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Ghana, which together account for around 69% of India's total bilateral trade with the Sub-Saharan Africa region. The scope of the programme was broadened on April 1, 2003 to Cover 17 more countries in Africa (Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Senegal, Ivory Coat, Uganda, Madagascar, Seychelles, Egypt, Tunisia, Sudan, Algeria, Libya and Morocco). Specific focus products for export to these countries were identified, which in turn were broadly classified into the textile items; drugs and pharmaceuticals; machinery and instrument; transport equipment; and telecom and information technologic. At the same time, the 'Focus Africa' programme envisaged enhancing India's export to the region through i n t e g r a t e d e ff o r t s o f t h e Government of India, India trade Promotion Organization, Export Promotion Councils, Apex Chamber of Commerce and Industries like CII, India Mission and institution such as the Export-Import Bank of India, ECGC, etc. The programme also supplemented the Lines of Credit which the Government of India was extending to Africa countries i n c l u d i n g Ta n z a n i a , a n d Mozambique, Zambia, Uganda, Kenya, Seychelles, Mauritius, Zimbabwe and Ghana. IBSA Initiative The first meeting of the IndiaBrazil-South Africa (IBSA) Trilateral Commission of the foreign ministers of India, Brazil and South Africa took Place in March 2004 in New Delhi. The Trilateral Commission was the outcome of the IBSA Dialogue Forum which was formed during the visit of the India Foreign Minister to Brazil in June 2003. The Trilateral Commission decided that the foreign ministers of the three countries would meet in regular intervals. A Trilateral joint commission was also set up, co-chaired by the respective foreign ministers. Later, the three foreign ministers signed the New Delhi Agenda for Cooperation and Plan of Action which aims to boost trilateral trade and promote others, cooperation in fields like health, IT, civil aviation and defence, and the three countries agreed to reinforce the economic strength of each other by strengthening the complementarities in the areas of industry, service, business and technologies. As per the plan of Action, a trilateral cooperation agreement on air service would be consider and finalised, particularly in the areas of identification of routes for increased frequency of air links and possibilities for commercial agreement between airline companies. A Trilateral Business Council was also planned to be set up to promote business-to-business exchange amongst the three countries, and focus on improving cooperation in trade, infrastructure, technology, sustainable development and energy. Further, a fund was also envisaged to be set up for fighting poverty and hunger in the three countries. The Trilateral Commission assumes significance as it represents three important countries representing the aspirations of development countries in three continents. TEAM-9 Initiative: Focus on West Africa Wi th a vi e w to e n h a n ce commercial relations with countries in the West Africa region, the Government of India put in place the TechnoEconomic Approach for Africa India Movement (TEAM9 Initiative). TEAM-9 Initiative

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countries (Burkina Faso, Chad, Cote d'Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Senegal) and India. Under the Initiative, a Cooperation mechanism was envisaged which will operate at governmental, institutional and private sector levels, sharing various types of expertise, intellectual and physical resource as well as economic opportunities for promoting welfare, growth and prosperity in these countries. It would thus involve, among others: Providing opportunity for education and training in crucial sectors; Tr a n s f e r o f c r i t i c a l technologies from India; employment and growth, such as agriculture, small-scale industries, pharmaceuticals and healthcare, information

Undertaking specific projects TEAM-9 countries which would have region wide beneficial impact in the sectors critical forin individual TEAM-9 countries which would have region wide beneficial impact in the sectors critical for employment and growth, such as agriculture, small-scale industries, pharmaceuticals and healthcare, i n f o r m a t i o n t e c h n o l o g y, telecommunications, transports, energy, etc. Putting in place US$500 mn Lines of Credit (LOC) and identifying priority sectors in the eight countries which would be financed out of the LOC. The project thus financed should be of a nature which will give a fillip to further award of project to Indian companies, as well as to increase bilateral trade between India and select West Africa 88888

India-Africa Project Partnership Conclaves Recognizing the immense potential to enhance trade and investment relations between India and Africa, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Govt. of India, Ministry of External Affairs, Govt. of India, Export-Import Bank of India and Africa Development Bank initiated the India- Africa Project partnership Conclave, in New Delhi. The Conclave created platforms for decision maker from Africa countries and relevant multilateral, regional and national funding agencies to meet heads of India companies involved in engineering consultancy, turnkey project, construction and supply of project goods, among others.

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