The LoCs projects in African nations are spread across sectors roads, railways, power, ports and shipping, education, telecom, health, and aviation, the Indian government has stated…reports Asian Lite News
India continues to engage with its neighbour nations as well as Africa through development assistance as New Delhi has extended 222 lines of credit (LoCs) worth $14.07 billion covering as many as 357 projects in 42 African nations.
The LoCs projects in African nations are spread across sectors roads, railways, power, ports and shipping, education, telecom, health, and aviation, the government has stated.
India has so far completed 197 projects in Africa and 65 more are currently being implement. 81 more projects are currently in the pre-execution stage, the report stated.
In addition to these LoCs, the government has granted assistance worth $700 million to African countries.
Being a trusted partner in the journey of socio-economic development, India has extended concessional loans of over $12.3 billion to Africa, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said on Tuesday.
The resource-rich continent (Africa) plays a particularly important role in India’s foreign policy outlook, S Jaishankar had said earlier this month while talking about relations with Africa. He said that the foreign policy outlook is now reflected in India’s expanding diplomatic footprint, which now cover 43 nations in Africa.
India has also granted $700 million of grant assistance, Jaishankar said in his address during the 17th CII-EXIM Bank Conclave on India-Africa Growth Partnership.
He said that since post-colonial reconstruction is the shared goal of India and African countries, it is only to be expected that development partnership would have primacy in India’s Africa policy. “This has been the centerpiece of the India-Africa Forum Summit (IAFS) that first commenced in 2008. Since then, the IAFS process has expanded very significantly both in scope and complexity of projects,” Jaishankar said.
He noted that particularly after 2015, the intensified engagement underlines Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s personal commitment to greater equity and sustainable development. “We have completed 197 projects so far, 65 more are currently under execution and 81 at the pre-execution stage,” Jaishankar added.
He asserted that India’s development projects in various sectors such as drinking water schemes to irrigation, rural solar electrification, power plants, transmission lines, cement, sugar and textile factories, technology parks and railway infrastructure have generated local employment and changed the life of many people in Africa.
“We are committed to enhancing capacity building and skill development among African youth. In this context, you would recall that we had announced 50,000 scholarships during IAFS-III in 2015, out of which more than 32,000 scholarship slots have already been utilised,” the minister said while addressing the 17th CII-EXIM Bank Conclave on India-Africa Growth Partnership.
The Minister noted that it is a matter of pride for India that several high ranking leaders, ministers, officials from Africa have studied in Indian universities and other institutions. Apart from these, a number of students and officials from Africa have also been trained under the ITEC programme.
“To provide high quality virtual education and medical services to our partners, the e-VidyaBharti and e-ArogyaBharti networks were launched in 2019 for tele-education and tele-medicine respectively,” Jaishankar said, adding that under these initiatives, youth from 19 African countries have enrolled for various degree and diploma courses.
“India has helped African countries to promote digital transformation through setting-up of IT Centres, Science and Technology Parks, and Entrepreneurship Development Centres (EDC). I think there is ample scope in the sphere of technology, and with our emphasis on trust and transparency, India and Africa make natural partners,” the minister asserted.