India, Africa hold summit to boost trade

NAIROBI, May 22 (AFP): India will seek to expand its economic footprint in Africa, where rival China has made major inroads, at a second summit between the southeast Asian powerhouse and African nations this week. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will head his country's team to the May 24-25 meeting being held in Addis Ababa after a similar summit in 2008 in New Delhi, which led to an increase in trade between the two regions. Like China, India's quest is driven by energy needs for its quick-paced economic growth. But India's ties with Africa are based more on private sector investment whereas Beijing concentrates on the extractive industries and infrastructure development. Despite being home to the bulk of the world's poorest countries, Africa is endowed with minerals, oil and other natural resources and remains a key destination for new ventures such as telecommmunications and IT. "Africa offers a great market for India's entrepreneurs," said Pritam Banerjee, trade and international policy chief at the Confederation of Indian Industry, a leading trade body. "India will emerge as a major supplier to Africa in engineering, infrastructure, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, automotives, farm equipment and a host of other sectors." The 2008 India-Africa summit saw India give preferential market access to exports from all the Least Developed Countries, many of them in Africa, as well as increase credit lines to Africa.