India keen to share industrial expertise with Africa
11 Sep '07
3 min read
India is keen to share its expertise with Africa in the fields of industry, trade and investment, Shri Kamal Nath, Minister of Commerce and Industry, said while underlining the country's commitment to promoting South-South cooperation at the inaugural session of the first International Conference on “India-Africa Cooperation in Industry, Trade and Investment”, organized by the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) in cooperation with Government of India here.
Known as the Sanjay Lall Memorial Conference, the five-day event is organized under the banner of the recently established UNIDO Centre for South-South Industrial Cooperation (UCSSIC), and is being attended by 42 delegates from 13 African countries – Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
“India's trade in goods and services will be in the region of 500 billion dollars this year. Our foreign exchange reserves are 230 billion dollars. The size of our economy has crossed 1 trillion dollars. But all this has not come easily to us. India has achieved this by dint of hard work. We would like to continue to share our experience, our expertise, our technology with our brothers and sisters from Africa”, the Minister said, adding that India had as much to learn as to teach.
Shri Ajay Shankar, Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), spoke of the special bond between India and Africa, and said the conference was a timely initiative which would help in carrying the south-south development process forward. Mr. J. Vinanchiarachi, Principal Adviser to the Director-General/UNIDO, described the late Professor Sanjaya Lall as a development-minded practical thinker, who contributed a lot to the work of international organizations.
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