India-Africa bilateral trade to double in 5 yrs

Bilateral trade between India and Africa is set to double from the current $53 billion in the next five years, primarily triggered by the transport equipment, services, healthcare and agriculture sectors.

“Bilateral trade has more than doubled from $25 billion in 2006-07 to $53.3 billion in 2010-11.  I see a faster growth in the next five years,” said Rajiv Kumar, secretary-general of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) at the two-day India-Africa Business Partnership Summit in Hyderabad on Wednesday.

The conference was inaugurated by Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy. Over 120 African and 250 Indian delegates, comprising heads of public-sector undertakings, corporate houses, government representatives and consultants are participating in the event.

According to an Exim Bank report, India’s exports to Africa rose from $10.3 billion in 2006-07 to $21.1 billion in 2010-11, mainly because of the increase in exports of transport equipment and petroleum products.

The concomitant rise in imports from Africa during the comparable period attests to increased two-way relations, wherein India’s imports from Africa have more than doubled from $14.7 billion to $32.2 billion, Kumar added.

Addressing the conference, TCA Ranganathan, chairman and managing director of Exim Bank, said the bank was helping in setting up food processing, textiles, diamond and IT clusters in Africa. “The IT and diamond clusters will be coming up at Botswana and Ghana respectively,” he added.