Expressnews
TO EXPLORE COLLABORATIONS
African Ambassador from SADC countries present invite Indian businessmen to invest in Agriculture and Mining sector.
The India Africa Trade Council organized the SADC Trade Conference which was attended by the Business community in New Delhi.
The Chairman of the India Africa Trade Council-SADC Hon Suraj kumar Shankar, a leading advocate in Chennai was welcomed by the Diplomatic community. During this time the Tamilnadu Africa Declaration was made to pledge the commitment of support between Tamilnadu and the African countries for a robust partnership. There is a huge interest in India for African countries which also has a huge NRI population, This region comes with great scope for bilateral trading opportunities in IT Sector, Skill Development, Affordable housing, Agriculture, Minerals and Gold, Manganese, Copper and many other minerals. Hon. Suraj kumar Shankar has the expertise of providing support in terms of Indian expertise to SADC African countries.
The Conference also saw the presence of the Commercial Attache of the Embassy of Zimbabwe Ms. Nomusa Chitawenga and the Head of Mission of Kingdom of Lesotho in New Delhi. The various diplomats congratulated Mr. Suraj on his appointment to the Council.
The event in New Delhi was attended by the various diplomats, Industrialists and Businessmen from Tamilnadu.
Mr. Suraj who met the High Commissioner of Malawi to invite him to the conference spoke about accelerating India’s relationship with the African region and its port proximity for the various other nations around the region. There are various business delegations recently from South Indians states of Tamilnadu and Kerala.
“As the SADC trade office bridge between India and African countries, I will explore all strategic opportunities between the two regions, I am thankful to the leadership of Narendra Modi for supporting the initiative and support to all our business houses in Tamilnadu as this creates a sense of confidence and credibility for our trade mechanisms. I will work on requesting the opportunities in Tamilnadu and work on the SADC Africa Special Economic Zone project that can enable African businessmen to collaborate with Indian business groups. Very soon our businessmen delegation will visit African countries to explore the various opportunities in Agriculture and Mining sector” said Mr. Suraj who will be driving the SADC India Africa trade relations in the state.
High Commissioner of Malawi His Excellency Mr. Leonardo Mengezi said global trade relations were essential and it was gratifying to see the development of trade relations between India and Malawi and also appealed Tamil businessmen to invest in Malawi and said the role of Indian IT sector from the state was essential for economic development. Malawi’s cashew business will gain good ground with Indian partnership and he appreciated Mr Suraj’s role during the visit of the President of India to Malawi last month.
“As the President of the Indian Economic Trade Organization, my goal is to build bilateral relations reach new heights between India and African countries and our visit of delegations few months back saw tremendous interest from the Indian side, Next delegation from Tamilnadu will go in the month of March 2025 under the India Africa Trade Council South India” said Dr. Asif Iqbal who is looking to support the operations in TN state. Indian delegation will explore opportunities in areas of contractual farming, poultry industry, meat processing, Gold trade and agricultural collaborations and also identify other opportunities for building up a robust infrastructure needs of the country in the field of setting up Indian pharma parks in the SADC region.
The conference also saw participation of Mr. R.L. Kannan from the Asian Arab Chamber of Commerce who is the National Director based in Chennai. He offered all support from Arab countries for SADC region for enabling partnerships and fruitful collaborations.
