CII to open four offices in Africa

The country's largest industry association, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), is all set to expand its international footprints. CII chief mentor Tarun Das said it was planning to open four offices in Africa.

For this, CII will seek help from its members and industry bigwigs like Tatas and Kirloskars. "We have the resources and we will do it in partnership with companies like Tatas and Kirloskars, who already have offices in Africa. We will co-locate with them," Das added.

This would take the number of CII international offices to 12. With a membership of around 7,000 companies, CII has 63 domestic offices and presence in countries like Australia, China, France, Japan and Singapore.

"We will go for countries where we are needed and not the ones that are well on the path of development," Das added. According to a CII official, one of the countries will be Ghana, while the other three are yet to be decided.

When asked about the objective of these offices, Das said: "There is scope for us in training skills, English language, information technology and higher education among others. We were not ready in terms of our human resources some years back, but based on our experience we can now help these countries come up," Das added.

In a move to strengthen bilateral ties between Africa and India, CII, during the two-day conclave on India-Africa Project Partnership, 2008, has signed four memoranda of understanding with various African industry associations like the Ethiopian Leather Industry Association.

Bilateral ties between India and Africa have increased with trade growing from less than $9.5 billion in 2005-06 to over $20 billion in 2006-07.