Calling for greater cooperation between India and Africa to meet the challenges of currency volatility, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma today made a strong case for raising the bilateral trade to USD 200 billion by 2020.
"We should aim to take the bilateral trade between India and Africa to USD 200 billion by 2020," the Minister told PTI on the sidelines of the third India-Africa Trade Ministers meeting which he co-chaired with South African Minister of Trade and Industry Rob Davies.
"The economic engagement has been a buoyant one as investments from India to Africa has crossed USD 50 billion in the last decade and trade has crossed USD 70 billion ... The bilateral trade target of USD 90 billion by 2015 is a modest one and is certainly achievable," he said.
Terming the partnership as distinct and strategic, Sharma said, "the robust economic growth of both India and Africa provided new opportunities of forging a development partnership which would not just be focussed on transactional trade but subsume capacity building, institution building, human resource development and productive investments."
Observing that the governments of India and Africa were confronted by challenges of currency volatility, high inflation and similar issues of underdevelopment and poverty, he said the India Africa Forum Summit declarations have given a blueprint of the partnership between these two regions covering a wide range of sectors.
The Minister said that a large number of regional and pan-African institutions have been established in Africa for capacity building and skill development, which would enable development of rich human resource.
