Africa-Press – Kenya. The volume of trade between the Republic of India and the African continent could reach 100 billion dollars by the end of this year, the special secretary of the Ministry of External Affairs announced yesterday in New Delhi.Shri Kumaran revealed the data during a meeting he held with a group of African journalists visiting India to familiarize themselves with the culture and various civilizations, having highlighted that his country’s accumulated investments in Africa have already exceeded 75 billion dollars.
Shri Kumaran said that overall, India’s portfolio of projects in Africa encompasses the construction of roads and transmission lines, IT infrastructure, telecommunications and upgrading of border infrastructure to enable greater flow of goods movement.
and passengers.
The Special Secretary stressed that despite these actions, India has also been focusing on projects in the pharmaceutical industry, education, skills development, agriculture and digital infrastructure.
The diplomat indicated that, alongside Africa, his country has so far invested more than 31 billion dollars in various sectors, in 68 countries.
According to Kumaran, as part of the policy of strengthening cooperation with neighboring countries, India has invested more than $14 billion in Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and the Maldives.
According to Shri Kumaran, Africa has contributed around US$12 billion, distributed across 42 countries. With these investments, 336 development projects have been implemented to date. Of these, 208 have already been completed.
He indicated that 85 projects are currently underway in Africa and the others are in various preparatory stages.
“India’s foreign policy towards Africa is based on development and capacity building partnership, trade and investment, and strong people-to-people ties, defence and maritime security. Our priorities are guided by the principles of non-interference and mutual respect,” he said.
According to Shri Kumaran, India and Africa share a multifaceted economic relationship, with the Asian country being the fifth largest trading partner and fifth largest investor to the African continent.
“India’s development cooperation has been built on the premise of strong cooperation with countries with shared experiences and challenges. Despite its resource constraints, India has begun to share its development experiences and technical know-how with other developing countries. Over the years, we have built on this foundation to develop a more comprehensive development cooperation policy,” he noted.
India’s Special Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs said that his country’s approach to development partnership is human-centred and demand-driven, offering assistance while sharing its own development experience across a wide range of trade and economic activities.
He stressed that India prefers to describe itself as a development partner of other countries rather than a donor, establishing an equal development coordination. “The aim is to create a higher level of capabilities in the host country so that instead of prolonged dependency, we can achieve mutually beneficial interdependence,” he said.
More partnerships
Shri Kumaran said that India’s programme called “Global South” does not just represent geographical situations but shared historical experiences such as colonialism, struggles for independence, economic exploitation and lack of representation in global governance.
For More News And Analysis About Kenya Follow Africa-Press
