in areas as diverse as agriculture to English language teaching in its
support for institutional capacity building in Africa, Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh said here on Wednesday.
India's total commitment to Africa would be to the tune of $5.7
billion in grants and lines of credit, the prime minister said at the
conclusion of the two-day 2nd Africa-India Summit at the African Union
headquarters in the Ethiopian capital.
"In consultation with African Union we will establish over 80 new
institutions at the Pan-African, regional and bilateral levels in
sectors such as agriculture, rural development, food processing, soil,
water testing laboratories, integrated textile cluster, weather
forecasting, life and earth sciences, information technology,
vocational training, English languages centres, entrepreneurial
development institutes.
"The consolidation of our financial assistance consisting of grants
and lines of credit into a cohesive plan has begun to show results in
projects of interest to Africa," he said.
"Our total commitment over the next three years is expected to be $5.7
billion to help Africa achieve its development goals," he added.
In addition, India will offer 22,000 scholarships and training slots
to African students under the Indian Technical and Economic
Cooperation (ITEC) programme, he declared.
Flanked by the president of Equatorial Guinea, Teodore Obiang Nguema
Mbasago, and chairperson of African Union Commission, Jean Ping,
Manmohan Singh said annual trade between India and Africa was about
$46 billion and growing. Measures to open the Indian market to African
exports, including under the duty-free tariff preference schemes, were
bearing fruit, he added. IANS
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