“The India Show” – a three-day conference and exhibition was organized by FICCI and Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India, in partnership with Economic Community of west African States (ECOWAS). Around 600 African delegates represented various ECOWAS countries such as Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Togo etc. More than 200 Indian delegates and exhibitors from sectors like agriculture and allied services, construction, consumer durables, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, information technology, infrastructure, logistics, minerals and mining, oil and gas, science & technology, and textiles, among others, participated in the event.
The Show aimed at creating platform for business generation and increased economic co-operation between India and West African countries in existing and new areas of mutual interest. Addressing the opening ceremony, H. E. Madam Hannah Tetteh, Minister for Trade, Industry and Private Sector Development, Republic of Ghana said “what distinguished the business partnership relations between India and Africa, on one hand, and Africa and the rest of the world, on the other, was India’s level of investment in Africa as opposed to the level of trade”. In his address, Mr. Anand Sharma, Hon’ble Minister for Commerce, Industry and Textiles, Government of India, noted that trade volumes between India and the West African sub-region is expected to rise to about US$ 40 billion by 2015 from the current level of about US$ 20 billion.
The exhibition was spread over 107 stalls with more than 76 Indian companies exhibiting their products and services. Over 1,350 B2B meetings, spanning over 3 days, were organized by FICCI that resulted in some good business leads. Notable among them being the signing of 4 MoUs, one in ICT application in healthcare sector in Ghana and three in capacity building, one each in Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea and Togo. Also, around 6 joint ventures in sectors like agriculture, education, food processing, healthcare, manufacturing and mining are in pipeline with initial reported trade leads of US$ 550 million by the Indian companies which participated. These are only the initially reported leads, more are expected to follow.
