(Image source from: english.sakshi.com)

Harsh Vardhan Shringla who is the foreign secretary has said that eighteen new embassies are to be opened by India in Africa in order to take the total number of the Indian missions to 47 from the total of 54 countries that are present in Africa.

Around 9 out of the 18 new missions have already been opened and over two- thirds of the lines of credit (LOCs) in the past decade have already been opened to the African nations in terms of the development cooperation of India.

Shringla has also said that the 189 projects which are valued at $11.4 billion are being implemented under the line of credit and the projects would range from the schemes related to drinking water to irrigation, solar electrification, power plants, transmission lines, cement plants , technology plants and the railway infrastructure, as told by Harsh Vardhan Shringla while he was addressing a conference which was titled as Understanding Africa: Continuity and Change.

He added saying that the picture on trade and investment is encouraging as he mentioned the trade between India and Africa in the previous year being valued at $69 billion which was a 12 per cent annual increase. The duty free access to 98.2 percent of the total tariff lines of India with the African nations being benefited by the Duty Free Tariff Preference (DFTP) Scheme that has been announced by India.

It has been said that around thirty eight nations of Africa have been benefited from the Duty Free Tariff Preference Scheme that has been announced by India.

India has now become the fifth largest investor in Africa as the cumulative investments of $54 billion and the investments that had been made by India has created several thousands of jobs for the local citizens in Africa, said Harsh Vardhan Shringla.

By Shrithika Kushangi