PM hopes to start new African chapter

With eyes on a mutual growth trajectory, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh reached Ethiopia this afternoon with an aim to strengthen New Delhi’s bond with the aam aadmi of Africa.

While China has a heavy-duty presence in large infrastructure and extractive industries, India, for the next five days, will try to “accelerate” its growth potential and build upon what it had gained since the first India-African Union Summit in New Delhi in 2008. Official sources also said it is adopting an entirely different path and believes “there is enough space for all of us”.

The PM’s visit will expand mutual co-operation which is already covering areas like agriculture, small business, trading, education and institution building process in Africa. It will also pave the way for higher investment of the Indian private sector on African soil. “We have promised zero-duty access to African nations. But the real issue is also creating capacity to export goods. It will take a long time,” a senior government official said.

Singh, in his departure speech last evening, had said there were compelling factors for stronger ties between the two sides “that responds to the realities of the 21st century”.

The headquarters of the African Union Commission at this city on the foothills of Mount Entoto, where the Prime Minister will come tomorrow for the summit meeting with 15 African nations, itself epitomises the undercurrent between the two Asian neighbours: Singh’s meeting will take place at a venue that has been built by the Chinese.

“We are not really scared of China. Africa is a growth pole for the future and it is getting its acts together. If it is an opportunity for China, it is also an opportunity for other countries. In Africa, both India and China have invested in the same oilfield in Angola. There is enough space for all of us,” official sources claimed.

As it wants to retain the image that “we don’t make promises which we can’t keep,” one of the issues that will come up for discussion is the RITES project in Tanzania. Tanzania had entered into a PPP agreement with RITES but last year Dar es Salem decided to break the agreement unilaterally. RITES had asked for a high compensation package which is still being debated.

“We are trying to know what went wrong and why it became impossible will be discussed,” a government official said about the bilateral with Tanzania slated during the later part of the tour.