Johannesburg: As nations of the world rise to complete the “unfinished business” of the last century, they aspire to join the five-nation BRICS grouping, a senior Indian diplomat has said.
The remarks by Dammu Ravi, Secretary (Economic Relations) in the Ministry of External Affairs, came as he addressed business leaders and diplomats representing countries across Africa and South America at a gathering hosted by the India Business Forum of South Africa on the periphery of the BRICS Summit starting here Wednesday.
The theme of the seminar was “Harnessing Synergies: India-Africa Cooperation for Prosperity in the BRICS – African Continental Free Trade Area Secretariat (AfCFTA) Landscape.”
Ravi described the “unfinished business” of the 20th century as moving away from the fight for freedom and independence from colonial rule to economic prosperity as the priority in the 21st century.
With 22 countries having applied to join BRICS, Ravi said that in this new global drive, partnering with Africa was critical.
BRICS is a grouping of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.
“So as we experience economic growth, we should also ensure that it brings prosperity to all our people. As nations expand, the aspiration to be part of (BRICS) spreads. That is why 22 countries have lined up to be BRICS members,” Ravi said.
“The fact is that any nation that wishes to survive the 21st century will need to have Africa on its side,” he added as he recalled how India had hosted the India-Africa Summit earlier.
Ravi said Indian companies had been doing a lot in Africa, but more could be done.
“We should be looking at whether we can do a greater number of projects with a little bit of innovative financing concepts. As the Ministry of External Affairs and the Government of India, we are trying to work out whether concessional financing arrangements are possible for companies to get financing resources in the country and elsewhere,” Ravi said.
He said there was a lot of money available in pension funds, but the challenge was mitigating the risk they would be exposed to.
“If we can cover the risk mitigation, then it is easy to tap institutional funding arrangements, both in India and abroad. Many pension funds in India and countries abroad have trillions of dollars and they could be invested across the world. But they also want to be sure that their investments get good returns and that their investments are safe,” Ravi said.
He said that the current one-billion-dollar annual projects could increase to five or six billion dollars in this way in many parts of the world, but specifically in Africa.
Among the potential projects in Africa that Ravi mentioned were filling and finishing generic medicines and vaccines made in India in African countries; assistance with food security by moving away from processed foods to natural ones such as millet production; and improved agriculture in the fertile land in these countries.
Also speaking at the event, newly-appointed High Commissioner to India Prabhat Kumar said the AfCFTA would boost efforts by Indian companies to invest more in Africa than the current 197 projects underway at present.
“In the African Free Trade area, there will be a good change in the perspective and Indian companies will look at the African market as a whole and invest in a bigger way”, Kumar said.
“I see a bright future for AfCFTA. It will lead to global rebalancing, which BRICS addresses,” Kumar added.
PTI