New Delhi: India will soon be setting up 19 training institutes in Africa within next two years. As per sources, the setting up of these institutes is a part of the commitment that followed the first India-Africa Forum Summit in 2008. Further, sources told that the institutes were visualized in the 2008 Delhi Declaration. The same were revealed in the joint action plan India and the African Union (AU) launched in March this year, sources added.
Moreover, sources informed that the two sides have finalized the location of the institutes ahead of India's second continent-level summit with Africa next year. Gurjit Singh, Joint Secretary In Charge of East & South Africa in the External Affairs Ministry told the sources that it was only last week that the AU conveyed to the Indian side the final list of locations of these training institutes.
A Former Indian envoy to Ethiopia said that the implementing agencies have already started working on these institutes. They hope to set up most of them over the next two years. As per sources, a foreign trade institute in Uganda and a diamond centre in Botswana are amongst the 19 training institutes that India will set up in Africa.
Further, sources informed that the India Africa Institute of Foreign Trade (IAIFT) in Uganda, India-Africa Institute of Information Technology (IAIIT) in Ghana, India Africa Diamond Institute in Botswana and India-Africa Institute of Education, Planning and Administration (IAIEPA) in Burundi will be some of the flagship projects that will underline New Delhi's focus on capacity building and human resource development in its Africa policy.
The India's National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC) will help in establishing vocational training centers in Egypt, Libya, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Burkina Faso, Gambia, Burundi and Gabon, Mozambique and Zimbabwe, sources added. In addition, the India's Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation in association with Building Materials & Technology Promotion Council (BMTPC) will set up Human Settlement Institutes in Kenya, Togo, Mauritania, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
