The Hindu Business Line : Co-operation with Africa

Many nuts and bolts issues have to be dealt with to get economic cooperation ventures going, which is the perspective through which the “Framework for Cooperation”, released at the Delhi summit, should
be seen.

Ranabir Ray Choudhury

Both India and the collective entity of Africa are undergoing important changes in these times, changes which are throwing up new challenges before the two sides which hold great potential for cooperation in the next 20 or 30 years.

The problem for both the sides is to locate the specific areas where they can get together and act, which will bring in sizable benefits both at the bilateral and global levels.

Links with Africa

Africa is a great cauldron of different nations, both politically and culturally, a cauldron which has begun its collective journey up the ladder of economic progress.

The road ahead is fiendishly difficult, not merely because of a lack of the essential inputs required for economic growth but also because of the huge burden of past attachments and ‘structures’, which have no place in the 21st Century and are, therefore, holding back the development of new ventures and mental processes which are absolutely indispensable to yield quicker and fairer benefits. As regards India, its experience with rapid economic growth over the past few years is a well-known fact, which has not only altered the internal dynamics of the growth process but has also led to external spin-offs, which is where its links with Africa enter the big picture, so to speak.

It is at this juncture of big changes sweeping across both the African continent and the subcontinent (together accounting for a total population of around 1.8 billion out of a global population of around 6.8 billion) that the first India-Africa Forum summit was held in New Delhi last week, thereby investing it with a significance which, to say the least, is not inconsiderable.

There is no doubt at all that the opportunity provided by the summit for both the sides to prepare for the future is very big indeed. However, everything will depend on how the ‘interface’ is worked out in its details, which is not an easy task given the built-in obstacles. Africa comprises 55 nation-States, which means that, at the grassroots level, New Delhi has to deal with 55 different sets of people (and authorities).

True, the umbrella African Union is there — which in fact selected the African participants at the summit — but the fact remains that, when it comes to working out the details of economic initiatives, the local people will have to be talked to. This effectively means that every ground situation will be a bit different from the other even though the broad parameters of economic cooperation will be the same, or almost the same, for the entire continent as such.

The nuts and bolts

In other words, a lot of nuts and bolts issues will have to be dealt with at very many levels to get specific economic-cooperation ventures going, which probably is the perspective through which the “Framework for Cooperation”, released at the Delhi summit, should be seen.

Even so, the “framework document” merely lays down the broad structure of cooperation in specific fields such as economic cooperation, political cooperation, science, technology and R&D, tourism, social development and capacity-building, etc. which, clearly, cannot be tackled on the same footing.

Thus, while economic issues like “sharing of experiences in mobilisation of domestic savings” can be taken up bilaterally (that is, between India and an individual African State), the political subject of “establishing a platform to initiate, deepen and maintain cooperation in civil establishments and training institutes in Africa and India on various relevant issues” cannot be handled except at the continental level.

A common choice

What this means is that, even with regard to the “framework of cooperation” document, more than one level of interaction will have to be resorted to, which makes the larger task of India-Africa cooperation more complicated than would seem to be the case at first sight.

To take a concrete example, the problems faced by private Indian companies currently operating in the African continent cannot be solved at the continental level but would have to be taken up at the bilateral level for a settlement. Indeed, it can even be argued that the principal effectiveness of the India-Africa Forum lies not in the assistance it can provide to forge deeper economic links, important as they are, but in projecting to the world at large (that is, the developed countries) that Africa and India have a common voice when it comes to global issues such as climate-change, multilatreral trade, or nuclear disarmament.

Indeed, if this is accepted, it can easily be argued that the Delhi Declaration is a much more important document emanating from the summit than the “framework” programme because it sets down on paper the official stand of the two sides on issues which will be holding the global centrestage during the next 10-15 years.

Development dimension

Thus, on climate change, the Declaration says that “development is the best form of adaptation” to meet the challenges posed by a changing climate and that “the foremost priority for developing countries is to ensure accelerated social and economic development”.

The point is made unambiguously that the adaptation procedures must be financed “through additional resources and not from funds meant for development”, thus ruling out any concession to the demand of the industrialised economies that “advanced developing” economies such as India and China should contribute their mite to technological upgradation in an effort to reduce carbon emissions.

On the Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations, both sides have reiterated the basic point that the development dimension of the Round cannot be lost sight of whatever the outcome.

Further, it has been made clear that agriculture “remains the key to the conclusion of (the) round”, and that the focus should be “on content and not artificial timelines”.

Africa has travelled a long way in the WTO where, in earlier times, it has often been subject to all sorts of pressures by the rich economies in an effort to make it toe their line, quite often resulting in adoption of stands opposed to those taken by countries such as India and Brazil. Seen against this background, the Declaration statement comprises definite progress — though it may make conclusion of the Doha Round even more difficult than it already is.

More Stories on : Foreign Trade | Wide Canvas

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Export challenges

Tackling a mess of our making

Inflation fighting — Learn from Chinese experience

Co-operation with Africa

India’s unique coinages

Lessons in education

DéjÀ vu in the financial sector

Inclusive education