Newsroom24x7 Desk

New Delhi : The upcoming India-Africa Summit in this month end may well be an opportunity for expanding trade ties between the nations, as indicated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a series of TweetComs – his communications via recent tweets, where the central point was that India is looking forward to the summit and is proud to play host to the month-end India-Africa Summit.

Representatives of 54 African nations including heads of state and government of around 40 countries and powerful African Union are expected to participate in the four-day India-Africa Summit beginning here on October 26.Ahead of the India-Africa Summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today stated India was proud to host the event which reflects a desire by the two sides to engage more intensively for a better future.

In a series of tweets, Prime Minister said India’s engagement with Africa has been scaled up and trade has been growing remarkably in recent years.

He tweeted – India is proud to host @indiafrica2015. The Summit reflects India & Africa’s desire to engage more intensively for a better future. India’s relations with Africa are historic. India is a major investor in Africa & trade has been growing remarkably in recent years.

PM Modi also expressed that the level of engagement for @indiafrica2015 has been tremendously scaled up, and ‘Several African leaders will join us. In run up to @indiafrica2015 many events are being organised to promote friendship & trade.’

The central agenda of this summits is expected to revolve around pointers like sepping up trade ties, particularly in oil and gas sector, strengthening maritime cooperation and lifting the overall engagement to a new high. India’s current trade with Africa stands at approximately around USD 75 billion dollar. To strengthen it further, it has granted a whopping USD 7.4 billion for various developmental and capacity building projects in the last four years. India has implemented a total of 137 projects in 41 African countries during the period.Expanding trade ties would be a major thrust area in the summit which is expected to register participation of over 400 business delegates from Africa besides all major Indian chambers of commerce.

A large number of African countries including Tanzania, Sudan, Mozambique, Kenya and Uganda are flushed with huge oil and gas reserves, and it is in this sector where India has focused its trade-eyes upon, by which India hopes to invest in the sector and thereby fuel its economic growth. Having a deeper partnership in exploiting the blue economy would be another focus area for which attempts would be made to tap it in.

There will be strategies on expanding ties with Africa in the sectors related to areas of energy, health care, infrastructure, technology and innovation.