Days after India ensured a full membership for African Union (AU) into G20, commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday said Indian companies should look to invest more in Africa and step up trade with countries in the continent with a population of 1.4 billion, which is as large as India.
“Those who don’t will miss the opportunity of a lifetime… Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s initiative to ensure that the African Union becomes a full member will earn a lot of goodwill across the 55 member countries,” the minister said, adding that India’s G20 presidency has resulted in enormous trust in it, not just in Africa but around the world.
The nudge to Indian companies comes at a time when global trade has slowed down, resulting in a fall in exports from several countries, including India. The government has been seeking to push a focus on newer markets and products to diversify India’s trade basket, along with a thrust on services exports. Goyal said India could contribute significantly to Africa offering its digital public infrastructure, as well as in sectors such as railways, electricity systems, road construction and several services.
The minister was all praise for the New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration issued on Saturday over the issue of the World Trade Organisation. “In a way, it is the importance of multilateralism that has been strengthened because India could come up with a consensus… It will strengthen the multilateral trading system and a rules-based global order, which will be particularly beneficial for developing and least developed countries since the principle of WTO is to provide special carve-outs for developing and least developed countries,” he said.
While backing reforms of WTO, G20 leaders had warned against protectionism. “We reiterate the need to pursue WTO reforms to improve all its functions through an inclusive member-driven process, and remain committed to conducting discussions with a view to having a fully and well functioning dispute settlement system accessible to all members by 2024. We commit to work constructively to ensure positive outcomes at WTO’s Thirteenth Ministerial Conference,” the Declaration said.
Pointing to last year’s WTO ministerial meeting, Goyal said India had played a constructive role and will do so at the next meeting in Abu Dhabi next year. He said as the leading voice of the Global South, India will pursue issues that are of interest of developing and least developed nations.
