By IANS,
New Delhi: India is likely to sign several agreements in agriculture, health, power and small and medium enterprises during Vice-President Mohammad Hamid Ansari’s three-nation, seven-day official visit to Africa beginning Tuesday.
The vice-president will begin his Africa visit from Zambia and later travel to Malawi and Botswana. He returns to India Jan 12. Ansari is accompanied by Minister of State for Labour and Employment Harish Rawat, three members of parliament and a business delegation.
“This visit is the highest level visit from India to these countries in recent years and emphasises the commitment that India has to continue to foster a multifaceted and mutually beneficial relationship with African countries,” External Affairs Ministry Secretary (West) Vivek Katju told reporters Monday.
“We hope to sign a variety of agreements during the visit, including in sectors like agriculture, SMEs, foreign offices interaction, health and power,” he said.
According to Katju, there was a lot of potential for growth of ties with all three countries. Among them, Zambia has the highest Indian investment of $1.6 billion, mostly in copper mines. The other sector for substantial investments is in hospitality and banking sector.
Botswana has seen some Indian investment in the automotive sector, but Malawi has still not registered any large-scale Indian investment.
Officials said that the Duty Free Tariff Scheme announced during the India-Africa Forum 2008 will hopefully attract more Indian investors to go to these countries.
India has also extended lines of credit to these countries – $30 million to Malawi, $20 million to Botswana and $10 million to Zambia.
Besides, India is likely to give another $50 million line of credit to Zambia for the Itezhi Tezhi Hydropower project, with the deal to be signed during the vice-president’s visit.
Katju said the operative point was that India will never dictate its interests for Africa’s development. “We will always be guided by the choices made by our African partners for their development,” he said.