China way ahead of India in acquiring African assets: Uganda

China has entered petroleum, mining sectors, whereas India yet to strengthen presence

Despite entering Africa much later than India, Chinese firms have moved aggressively ahead of Indian companies in tapping natural resources like oil, gas and minerals in the fast growing continent, a Ugandan Minister has said.

 

"Certainly (China is investing much more than India in Uganda). First of all, you should know that China going to Africa is new, this is recent, less than 15 years. India has been in Africa for more than a hundred years but they should have done more.

 

"Chinese are new but they are doing so much already," Ugandan Minister of State for Industry and Technology James Mutende told PTI on the sidelines of the ongoing India Engineering Sourcing Show (IESS) here.

 

Mutende is here as a key member of the COMESA which is the largest trade and economic bloc in Africa. The COMESA as a Partner Region of the IESS is aggressively scouting for Indian investment in Africa, particularly in southern and eastern Africa.

 

He said China has come very aggressively in petroleum; a number of Chinese companies have already taken oil fields in Uganda. No Indian company has taken even one oil field so far as I know. China has come into mining. They have come and they are reviving old mines which were closed, now they are going into phosphates also. We have some of the best (investment) incentives".

 

While the Indian government had chalked out ambitious plans for its blue-chip Navratna and Maharatna PSUs to acquire strategic assets abroad, not much progress has been made particularly in the resource-rich African continent, experts feel.

 

It is not only the Chinese firms but also mega corporations of the US, Europe and Australia which are strengthening their presence in several African countries.

 

The Ugandan Minister also offered investment opportunities to India in the field of agriculture. He said his government would allow Indians and other foreign nationals to come and invest in agriculture. Afterwards, they can produce the output.