Terming Prime Minister Narendra Modi as businessman, president of African Development Bank (AfDB) Dr Akinwumi Adesina on Saturday said that Modi knew very well how to strike best deal for the interest of his country.
Addressing a Press conference a day before AfDB’s 53nd Annual Meeting to be held at Gandhinagar, Dr Adesina said that India under the leadership of Narendra Modi continued to take great steps which are text-book chapters for other developing nations.
“Three years into his mandate, Modi has strongly positioned India as the best emerging economy and a developing beacon for the rest of the world. like India, the African continent, has rich and compelling diversity. Both India & Africa have a similar landscape, a colonial history, and comparable economic and demographic challenges,” he said.
This is the right time for both India and Africa to work together, forging winning partnerships to invest in power generation & energy, agro-aligned industrialisation and food processing, he opined, adding that while doing so both the regions can explore synergies in infrastructure, regional integration, regulation of enterprises, employment generation, health and innovation.
“India is one of the largest investors in Africa. From 1999 to 2016 Indian investments in Africa came to $54 billion, which is India’s 19.2 per cent of total Foreign Direct Investment. Bilateral trade between India and Africa has increased five fold over the last one decade to $ 56.7 billion in 2015-16 and is expected to reach $ 100 billion in 2018,” he added.
The African Development Bank is hosting its meeting first time in India at Mahatma Mandir, a regular venue for Gujarat flagship biennial event for trade and investment — Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit in the State Capital. The four-day event starting from Monday will be inaugurated by PM Modi.
The event, where key decisions about the bank group are made each year, is attended by Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors from the bank’s 54 regional member countries (RMCs) and 26 non-regional member countries, and attracts more than 4,500 delegates representing multilateral finance institutions, development agencies, the private sector, non-governmental organisations.