India Pledges Massive Investment in Africa
by Liam Bailey
2008-04-08 20:48:28 **news**
India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has pledged to invest $500 million in Africa, in a bid to re-established strong trade and cooperation ties, with India's desperation to find new sources of natural resources. The move is also in response to China recently muscling in on countries previously mainlining good relations with India.
Speaking at the first summit aimed at strengthening India/Africa ties Singh also said he would give greater access to exports from the world's poorest countries, many of which are in Africa.
Addressing the 14 African leaders at the summit, including, Uganda's Yoweri Museveni, Ethiopia's Meles Zenawi and South Africa's Thabo Mbeki, Singh said:
"No one understands better than India and Africa the imperative need for global institutions to reflect current realities and to build a more equitable global economy and polity."
Mbeki also made conciliatory statements about how the two countries had many challenges in common: "Our enemy is common. We both have poverty and underdevelopment."
The BBC's India correspondent said that India will offer increased aid and low-cost solutions to poverty, in return for greater access to Africa's natural resources. Though India Africa trade is now at $30 billion per year, it is only a fraction of China's.
India has a long history of assisting African countries, and this summit is about getting something back. A couple of years ago China held a similar summit, and though China's Africa trade is far larger, most analysts believe India has the edge, because of its expertise in the field of low cost technology, and it being a major supplier of generic pharmaceuticals.
It is nice to write about a country that is doing well financially helping to do something about the dire poverty that exists in Africa, even if it is with ulterior motives. There is far too much poverty, hunger, war, and violence in the world, schemes like this are a refreshing break from the norm.
