Sunil Mittal to co-chair India Africa Business Council

NEW DELHI: Telecom czar Sunil Bharti Mittal would co-chair the India-Africa Business Council (IABC), a platform to discuss ways to enhance economic ties between the two sides.

IABC was announced by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during the India-Africa Forum Summit in May 2011.

The inaugural meeting of IABC will be held here tomorrow. The Council will be formally launched by Minister of Commerce and Industry Anand Sharma and African Union Commission Commissioner for Economic Affairs Maxwell Mkwezalamba.

"India and Africa have historically had strong trade and cultural ties and the past few years have seen significant increase in investment out of India into Africa, underlining the positive sentiment," Mittal said.

Top business leaders from both the sides would participate in the meeting.

The core sectors for cooperation to be facilitated by the Council will be agriculture, pharmaceuticals, textiles, mining, petroleum and natural gas, IT, gems and jewellery, financial services, telecom, energy and infrastructure.

The Council will meet annually in India and Africa alternately.

Bilateral trade between India and Africa has grown from USD 967 million in 1991 to over USD 39 billion in 2009-10.