India, Africa driving engines of global recovery: Anand Sharma | WPN World People News

Asserting that India and Africa are the driving forces of global economic recovery, Commerce Minister Anand Sharma has said the Indian Government will fast track the establishment of specialised capacity building institutions in the continent.

"We have been the driving engines of global economic recovery. Our countries have resources both material and human resources, we know that Africa is richly endowed, the continent of a billion people. In a decade's time, Africa's GDP would be 2.5 trillion dollars. India is headed in that direction too, a country of 1.2 billion," Sharma said while addressing the 8th CII EXIM Bank Conclave on India-Africa Project Partnership here.

He further highlighted the Indian Government's initiatives in building educational organisations in Africa, stating that the establishment of the specialised capacity building institutions would be fast tracked.

Sharma said that new opportunities galore existed for both developing countries, which now also have the task of rebalancing the order of powerful nations.

"It is a rebalancing of the global economic order, rebalancing is important because today more than half of the global economic output almost 60 percent plus is coming from the developing countries. Asia alone is contributing almost 50 percent, if not more. And within this year or within one year the GDPs of Asia, European Union and North America would be equal sized," added Sharma.

He further asserted that affiliation between the two countries would go a long way in defining their long-term partnership.

"That is where the partnership between us and Africa becomes a defining one in the 21st century world, it can bring about a transformation at a faster pace ensuring that we share our developmental experiences and that can only be done by building institutions as I referred to some of them," he said.

India is trying to secure a greater presence as well as get African support for its bid for a permanent place on the UN Security Council, as the body is reformed to include emerging powers and developing nations.

India's state-run oil firms are beginning to invest in countries including Nigeria and Kenya, while China has pumped billions of dollars into Sudanese oil, mineral-rich Zimbabwe, and Zambia's mining sector, among other countries.

Source: The Africa News.Net