NEW DELHI - President Paul Kagame will lead a delegation of African leaders to the upcoming India-Africa summit in India’s capital, New Delhi.

The "India-Africa Business Partnership Summit” scheduled for January 19-20 next week will, reportedly, aim at jointly looking at investment and trade opportunities in Africa.

Kagame is expected to give the keynote speech. This was confirmed yesterday afternoon in an e-mail by Dr. David Himbara, the Head of Strategy and Policy Unit in the Office of the President.

"Hosted by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, and the Government of India, the summit will provide a platform for forging partnerships to exploit business opportunities in Africa in sectors such as health and medical industry, agriculture, ICT, infrastructure and transport, construction and energy,” Dr. Himbara stated in the email.

"Delegations from Africa will be equipped with comprehensive analyses of what the noted sectors offer to Indian investors for making concrete deals,” Dr. Himbara highlighted.

Himbara also noted that the summit "should be understood” in the broader context of the emerging strong relationship between India and Africa.

"Last year,” he noted, "India hosted the first ever India-Africa Summit, attended by African Heads of State. At that summit, India increased access to goods from the least developed African countries.”

Himbara believes this is an opportunity the Rwandan business community should make the most of.

"Something that Rwandan business people should begin to take advantage of, by exporting into this market of over one billion,’ he noted.

The first India–Africa Summit was held in New Delhi in April last year. Information from the African Union (AU) website underlines that it would consider modalities of strengthening ties between the two partners in areas ranging from economic, political, science, technology, research and development, infrastructure, to media and communication.

The outcome of the summit was the adoption of two documents – the Delhi Declaration and the Africa-India Framework for Cooperation – with an aim of enhancing the "true partnership” to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

The Delhi Declaration is a political document that covers issues of bilateral, regional and international interest to India and Africa, including their common positions on UN reforms, climate change and terrorism.

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