Progress made at the recent Africa-India Summit in Ethiopia during the period 24 to 26 May 2011 in terms of future development in South Africa

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NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

FOR WRITTEN REPLY

QUESTION NO: 2053 (NW2302E)

Mr LS Ngonyama (COPE) to ask the Minister of International Relations and Cooperation:

Whether any progress has been made at the recent Africa-India Summit in Ethiopia during the period 24 to 26 May 2011 in terms of future development in South Africa; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details?

Reply

The Africa-India partnership focuses specifically on capacity building and Human Resource Development, in this regard, pre-Summit several institutions were already set up in Africa, namely:

• African Institute of Foreign Trade (Uganda);
• Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (Burundi);
• The African Diamond Institute (Botswana);
• Institute of Information Technology (Ghana);
• Pan African Stock Exchange (Egypt);
• 10 Vocational Training Centres (Burkina Faso; The Gambia; Rwanda; Ethiopia; Mozambique; Zimbabwe; Burundi; Gabon; Libya and Egypt);
• 5 Low Cost Housing Pilot-Projects (1 per region in Africa).

These institutions are beneficial to South Africa in that the terms under which they have been developed allow for any country on the Continent to receive capacity building from them, i.e. South Africans can receive diamond-training at the African Diamond Institute in Botswana.

In addition, during the Summit, the Ministerial Meeting concluded with the signing of 14 Memorandums of Understanding (MOU’s) on additional capacity building institutions that shall be set up on the African continent. The envisioned institutions are as follows:  

• An India-Africa-Virtual University would be set up with 10 000 proposed new scholarships;
• Africa-India Food Processing Cluster;
• Africa-India Integrated Textiles Cluster;
• Africa-India Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting; and
• Africa-India Institute of Agriculture and Rural Development.

South Africa is considering hosting one of these institutions. The Department of International Relations and Cooperation, the Department of Trade and Industry and the Department of Agriculture have taken this under consideration, specifically the possibility of hosting the Africa-India Food Processing Cluster.

The Africa-India partnership also offers scholarships and training programmes in several fields, these are open to all African countries, including South Africa. Training and capacity-building are offered in the following areas:

• Customized training (2-4 weeks) in

(i) Water conservation and utilization

(ii) Production of seed, sapling & planting material

(iii) Livestock production

(iv) Fisheries production

(v) Farm mechanization

(vi) Post harvest processing and value addition

• Joint international training of trainers in the field of sports management and development, including sports medical care;
• Food processing: Training and capacity building to 350 persons (10 to each Sub-Saharan African country);
• Housing and Power Poverty Alleviation: Training of engineers skilled and semi-skilled workers, small entrepreneurs, project managers both in India and host country;
• Training of media persons.

Furthermore, the Indian government has pledged US $5 billion over the next three years under lines of credit to help achieve African development goals and will work with the African Regional Economic Communities (REC’s) to establish, at the regional level, Soil, Water and Tissue Testing Laboratories; Regional Farm Science Centres; Seed Production Centres; and Material Testing Laboratories for Highways.

The South African and African perspective of this partnership is that is yielding high benefits and is providing deliverables at a significantly faster rate than any other African Multilateral Partnership.

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