“We see a lot of successful collaborations happening”

Hanna S. Tetteh, Minister, Ministry of Trade and Industry, Republic of Ghana, shares perspectives on bilateral ties between India and Africa during the Africa Day Symposium

I think that the MOU to be signed between the IACCI and the Ghana National Chamber of Commerce is a very good initiative as it creates a basis for the two chambers to be able to work together to promote business between Ghana and India specifically. I am here with quite a large Ghanaian delegation, which is mainly made of people from the private sector.
From the point of view of the Government we have other considerations as well; more to do with the Social Responsibility issues, like Poverty Elevation and development, so when it is purely to do with business matters, we think that the private sector is better equipped to handle those transactions.

As a whole it is a very useful experience for us as a country as we believe that we are able to form useful partnerships with companies from India that have the appropriate technology that is useful, that fits in within our given circumstances and is cost effective and it helps us to deliver the results that we need to have.

And I also think that the fact that we all were colonized by the British helps us as we know each other as we all speak English. The judicial and legal systems are similar and this helps to give a common ground for Business development and helps facilitate smoother business activities.

Financing a lot of these transactions and providing trade insurance would promote trade between India and Africa. When you are dealing on a continent to continent basis, it is quiet important to be able to have a backup so when you are improving the business relations with companies, There is also a need for deepening the relations between the financial sector.

Looking forward, the future of Indo-African relations depends on a country to country basis. Some countries are better prepared to build business relations than others. A good number of the African Countries are the least developed countries so their productive capacity and their capacity to carry on trade are small. The countries with such nature would be looking out for some kind of consultancy services and assistance that would help them to improve their own trading capacity. Then we have the developing countries where to some extent that capacity has been built but it needs to grow. Ghana is a developing country; we are at a stage where we do have a quiet a number of private sector business.

So that’s why I have a delegation of over 30 people from the private sector. It is the private sector that needs to grow and we will benefit from the trade with India. We feel that the technology is appropriate. We feel that the product and services are also useful. Recourse sharing is beneficial. We have a tropical climate like yours, so we produce all the things that you produce. We need to guage how you have managed the process of value addition, the equipment that you have designed for the process, the factory resources that you have set up…

This Africa Day Symposium has been very well organized. It is proving to be very useful as a lot of the members of the delegations that have come along with me have shared with me that they are making very essential business contacts and there is a lot of sharing of ideas for promoting business relations between India and Ghana that are being discussed.
If the delegation is benefiting from the trade interactions that they are having, it makes us achieve our main objective of getting the delegation to India – of building better business relations with India. With the interactions that we make here we definitely look forward for successful partnerships with the Indian Business Community.

With the signing of MoU the relations will improve and will provide a platform for us to work together. And if the same event is organized next year then we see a lot of successful collaborations happening between various Indian and Ghanaian companies.

Broadly it can be said that Indian investments in Africa are predominantly resource seeking, though market seeking and efficiency seeking investments are also present. For Indian companies, the obvious advantages are access to the African market which is coming out of a phase of economic stagnation and improved access to energy and mineral resources to satisfy the demand from the growth of the domestic economy.

Among Indian companies, it has been observed that there is a growing interest of Indian MNCs in the African countries. Though India had business interest and investment in Africa since very long, these were largely driven by small and medium enterprises and traders. But the recent wave of FDI from India to Africa is driven by the bigger Indian companies. Most of these companies have made significant investment in the extraction sector of different African countries.

It is important to remember that like their developed country counterparts, Indian companies need to develop a portfolio of locational assets to improve their international competitiveness. It is expected that locational assets will help Indian companies improve their competitiveness and efficiency both locally and globally. Such efficiency gains may contribute to industrial transformation and upgrading of value-added activities, improved export performance, higher national income and better employment opportunities for the Indian economy.”

Source: TODAY NEWS OF INDIA