New Delhi, July 18 (Agency) Leaders of several African countries arrived in the Indian capital today to participate in the two-day 17th CII- EXIM Bank Conclave on India-Africa Project Partnership that kicks off tomorrow with focus on trade, investments, exchange of knowledge and expertise and creating shared values for business and industry between India and Africa. The conclave, titled Creating Shared Futures, is being held at Taj Palace.
The inaugural session tomorrow is titled “India-Africa : Reinvigorating Growth Partnerships” . The session will present a big-picture view of the economic prospects of India and Africa despite continuing global headwinds and map out the “shared future” of their partnership in this year and beyond. It will see release of India Exim Bank’s publication “Building a Resilient Africa: Enhanced Role of India”. The session will see participation by Piyush Goyal, Minister of Commerce & Industry, Marie Cyril Eddy Boissezon, Vice President, of Mauritius, Badara A. Joof, Vice-President, of The Gambia, W.K. Mutale Nalumango, Vice President, of Zambia, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Republic of Namibia, besides Sanjiv Bajaj, President, CII, Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII, and Harsha Bangari, Managing Director, India Exim Bank. The sessions over the two days are on: Building Finance Partnerships; Higher Education and Skill Development Partnership with Africa; Strengthening Value Chains in Agriculture and Food Processing; Exploring New Frontiers for Indian Consultancy Industry; Creating Regional Production Networks for Common Markets; Co-Creating Start up Ecosystems – Ideas, Innovation and Enterprises; India-Africa Defence Cooperation- Partnering for Security; Trilateral Partnerships; Building B2G (Business to Government) Bridge; Collaboration for Energy Security and Harnessing Alternative Sources; Healthcare and Pharma Sector, besides country specific sessions.
The conclave was launched in 2005 with the support of the Ministry of External Affairs and the Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India. Over the last 16 editions, the Conclave has played a pivotal role in encouraging Indian companies to establish and grow their footprints in Africa. The level of economic engagement between India and Africa has grown multi-dimensional and to reflect the changing contours of this dynamic relationship, the Conclave was rechristened as “CII EXIM Bank Conclave on India Africa Growth Partnership” expanding the earlier focus on “Project Partnership”. The upcoming edition will focus on project exports, trade, investments, exchange of knowledge and expertise, creating shared values for business and industry at large between India and Africa. The conclave has not only set the ground for many new cross-border partnerships to take root, but also conducted a critical evaluation of the existing collaborative arrangements on the basis of which a new roadmap for future Africa partnerships would be designed, a statement said.