India Pledges
‘Functional Cooperation’ With Africa
India's
Minister of State for External Affairs, Shashi Tharoor, has said
that his country is pursuing a ‘functional collaboration’
approach in building partnership with Africa.
Addressing the 6th CII-Exim Bank Conclave on India Africa
Project Partnership in New Delhi, Tharoor said the Delhi
Declaration, adopted at the first India Africa Forum Summit in
2008, added a new dimension to India's model of cooperation with
Africa.
He said India-Africa relations were founded on the fundamental
principles of equality, mutual respect and understanding.
’’India and Africa have pursued mutual benefits through a
consultative process,’’ Tharoor said, pointing out that
India’s engagements in Africa were aligned with the stated and
defined needs of the host countries.
The minister said while there were occasional procedural delays
with respect to the projects sanctioned by the Indian
government, owing to the strong ‘check-and-balance’
mechanism managed by the Indian bureaucracy, the Indian
government had not wavered from the objective of initiating
projects that contribute to Africa's development process.
Non intrusive policy
Tharoor said India believed in extending 'a non-intrusive
support’ to Africa and has contributed significantly to
Africa's human capital development, having over 15,000
African students enrolled in Indian educational institutions
every year.
Talking about the Indian private sector engagement in Africa,
Tharoor said Indian companies operated independently in Africa
with ‘no heavy government footprint.’
He added that the Conclave had once again demonstrated the
positive intent with which Indian private corporate sector was
engaging Africa.
’’The Government of India's lines of credit (LoC) have
contributed to asset creation in Africa and have acted as
catalytic confidence builders,’’ he said.
The three-day 6th CII-Exim Bank Conclave on India Africa Project
Partnership ends today.
NAN/Yinka
