1. We, the African Union Trade Ministers and the Minister of Commerce and Industry of the Republic of India, met in Johannesburg, South Africa on 1 October 2013 within the framework of the annual Africa-India Ministers of Trade meetings as set out in the joint statement of 21 May 2011. The meeting was addressed by the Chairperson of the African Union H.E. Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma and was co-chaired by H.E. Dr Rob Davies the Minister of Trade and Industry of the Republic of South Africa and H.E. Mr Anand Sharma, Minister of Commerce and Industry of India.
2. Guided by the need to further enhance and strengthen the trade and investment relationship between Africa and India in order to overcome the menace of poverty among our growing populations, promote sustainable economic growth and development through improved trade and investment flows between Africa and India, we commit to take joint actions to achieve the stated objectives. We noted the prevalent global economic slowdown and the challenges posed by the recent developments in the world economy and acknowledged that it becomes more important to forge mutually beneficial economic partnerships which will act as engines of economic growth and socio-economic development of our regions.
3. We recognise the importance of changing the composition of Africa’s trade with India away from exports of commodities to value added products. In this regard we express the need for increased investments on activities that promote Africa’s industrialisation as outlined in the Plan of Action for Accelerated Industrial Development of Africa (AIDA) and infrastructure development through the Program for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA) amongst others.
4. We took note of the Progress Report on the implementation of the joint commitments undertaken by us, the African and Indian sides, during the 1st and 2nd Africa-India Trade Ministerial Conferences held in Addis Ababa and New Delhi in May 2011 and March 2012 respectively, particularly, the commitment on Building Trade-related Capacity and conclusion of Trade Cooperation Agreements between India and the Regional Economic Communities (RECs) in Africa as well as the establishment of the Pan-African Institutes within the framework of the Africa-India Forum Summits.
5. We call upon, both sides to consider modalities that would ensure the mutual review and accountability of agreed commitments through a comprehensive monitoring and evaluation mechanism.
6. We highly commend in this regard, the Government of India for having conducted, through the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), Executive Development Programs on International Business as well as Trade-related Capacity Building and Training Programmes, through the Indian Centre for WTO Studies (CWS). The Government of India may consider extending similar trade-related capacity building programmes to the African countries that have not participated in such trainings.
The African Union Member States may, in turn, share those programmes at national level for the benefit of officials in trade Ministries. We appreciate the efforts made by the Government of India in strengthening the capacity of Chambers of Commerce and Investment Promotion Agencies from African countries through capacity building programmes organised by Invest India and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). We are sure that these programmes will result not only in building their expertise but also in establishing strong linkages between the businesses of India and Africa. We recognise the important role played by the National Institute of Design (NID) of India in building the capacity of women artisans of rural Africa through Training Programmes on Design Intervention for the Basketry Craft as part of initiatives under the Second India-Africa Forum Summit.
7. We took note of the Regional Economic Communities (RECs) acknowledgement of India as an important partner and African Union’s efforts at promoting regional integration in Africa. We also took note that the RECs are an integral part of the India- Africa Forum Summit structure, and that the Action Plan of the Second Summit contains several regional initiatives. We noted that Africa’s RECs have shown concrete movement towards the creation of common markets, which would have a considerable impact on India-Africa economic relations.
We note the setting up of the India-COMESA Joint Working Group (JWG) to examine the feasibility of a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) or Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) between India and COMESA. We emphasised the need to ensure better coherence and coordination of the frameworks that India has with the RECs taking into account the wider integration agenda of Africa.
8. We recognise the important role of the various Pan-African Institutions being set-up by the Indian Government under the auspices of the India-Africa Forum Summits for capacity building and human resource development across many areas, which will help the African countries achieve their developmental goals. These include the establishment of four institutions as decided at the first Summit namely, (i) India-Africa Institute of Foreign Trade, (ii) India-Africa Diamond Institute, (iii) India-Africa Institute of Educational Planning and Administration and (iv) India-Africa Institute of Information Technology and further six institutions agreed at the second Summit, namely (a) India-Africa Food Processing Cluster, (b) India-Africa Integrated Textile Cluster, (c) India-Africa Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting, (d) India-Africa University for Life and Earth Sciences, (e) India-Africa Institute of Agriculture and Rural Development, and (f) India-Africa Civil Aviation Academy. In this regard, we urge both sides to fast-track the internal procedures that will facilitate and expedite the process of establishing the Pan-African Institutions, especially the India-Africa Institute of Foreign Trade, which is expected to provide technical capacity building programmes to strengthen Africa’s level and quality of participation in foreign trade.
9. We note that India-Africa relationship has acquired a robust and dynamic character to assume the dimension of a strategic partnership. Indian investment in Africa has surged, with major investment having taken place in the telecommunications, Information Technology (IT), energy, engineering, chemicals, pharmaceuticals and automobiles sectors. India's current investments in Africa is estimated to be over US $50 billion.
We also note that in spite of growing trends in investment flows between India and Africa, the existing investment levels do not reflect the true potential. There is a vast potential for accelerating investment flows in the potential sectors of cooperation including in. Agriculture including Agro-processing, Pharmaceuticals, Textiles, Mining, Petroleum and Natural Gas, Information Technology and Information Technology Enabled Services (IT & ITES), Gems and Jewellery, Core Infrastructure including Roads and Railways.
10. We also took note of the steps being undertaken by ‘Invest India’ to facilitate information sharing about investment opportunities and hand holding of the entrepreneurs’ from both sides. The Investment E-portal ‘India Africa Investment Gateway’ by ‘Invest India’ aims to provide details on the overall investment scenario, including investment opportunities and policies in Africa and India. Invest India is bringing out Business Guides for five regions of Africa highlighting investment policies in important countries of each region, sectors of importance in each region, processes involved in setting up business, taxation issues, important projects etc. We also note the progress being made by African countries and the need to exchange information on investment trends and to engage in a dialogue on Investment Treaties between Africa and India
11. We further noted the progress made by the India-Africa Business Council (IABC) since its first meeting held in March 2012 in New Delhi. India-Africa engagements have intensified in this duration with substantial progress achieved across the board in different areas. The five Working Groups have exchanged views in the areas of Infrastructure, Agriculture and Textiles, Value Added Manufacturing, Services and Skills Development.
We take note of the Plan of Action proposed by IABC for the year 2014 and our governments will provide the full support in realising the initiatives keeping in sight the development priorities and inclusive growth of our countries. Given the fact that six of the world’s ten fastest growing economies are in Africa and that with both Africa’s and India’s growing middle class constituting an important consumer market, we renew our confidence in the IABC to promote business cooperation through technology transfer, joint ventures and identification of business opportunities in both Africa and India. We urge both sides to undertake some work in order to overcome the impediments of trade between Africa and India.
12. We exchanged views on preparations for the ninth WTO Ministerial Conference to be held in Bali in December 2013, particularly on the need to coordinate the positions of developing countries on potential agreement on trade facilitation, certain aspects of agricultural issues, a special package of measures for LDCs and Special and Differential treatment (S&D) provisions in favour of developing countries. We are committed to working together to ensure a balanced outcome on these issues in keeping with the mandate of the Doha Development Round, in the Bali Ministerial Conference. We reaffirm our support for African countries that are in the process of acceding to the WTO and we support the AU’s request to be granted Observer Status in the WTO. We noted that the Conference of the AU Ministers of Trade will be held on 21 to 25 October 2013 to address these issues.
13. We underscore the need to enhance India-Africa cooperation in the Services sector including Banking, IT and ITES including software development and Voice Based services, telecommunication, R&D services, professional services and films, music and television to name a few.
14. We express our sincere gratitude to the Government and people of the Republic of South Africa for the warm welcome and hospitality extended to all delegations and for the excellent facilities provided for the successful hosting of this Conference.
