Press Information Bureau

Government of India

Ministry of Commerce & Industry

21-March-2012 13:23 IST

India Malawi Trade Back on Track, Registers 85 Per Cent Growth

India and Malawi have expressed happiness that after decline in bilateral trade in Fiscal Year 2010-11, bilateral trade has shown a strong growth in the current fiscal year. In the 8-month period of April to November, 2011 in the current fiscal year, bilateral trade was US $ 113 mn, up from US $ 61 mn in the corresponding 8- month preceding period of April to November, 2010 in Fiscal year 2010-11, that is, a growth of more than 85 %. In a bilateral meeting here today, the Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Shri Anand Sharma and his Malawi counterpart Mr John Bande stressed the need to work on increasing the trade volume and expanding the basket of products to our mutual advantage.

Referring to the recent commitment of revising the trade target with Africa to US$ 90 billion by year 2015, Shri Sharma said that “there is a need to strengthen the trade relationship between the two sides through building of trade-related capacity ...Our leaders had set a target of US$ 70 billion by 2015 but we can note with satisfaction that last year we crossed US$ 60 billion. A 20-fold growth within a decade is indeed an achievement worth applauding.”

Shri Sharma conveyed India’s willingness to support Malawi in its economic development in the areas such as agriculture, railways, rehabilitation, hydro power stations, solar energy etc. and expressed satisfaction that Malawi had utilized the Indian Line of Credit of US$30 million extended to it in 2008 for irrigation, grain storage and tobacco threshing projects in Malawi and has also submitted projects under the LOC of $50 million announced during Vice President Shri Hamid Ansari’s visit which have been approved and the Loan Agreement would be signed after Malawi has completed its internal approvals.

During the 2nd India Africa Forum Summit held in Addis Ababa in May 2011 India’s total commitment over the next three years is expected to be $5.7 billion to help Africa achieve its developmental goals, more than 22,000 scholarships to Africa over the period of three years and establishment of more than 80 capacity building institutions in Africa. Under the decisions of IAFS-II, India has offered establishment of Rural Technology Park and cover Malawi under the cotton initiative to be undertaken by the Government of India. The Cotton Technical Assistance Programme for Africa was launched by Shri Sharma on last Saturday at India Africa Trade Minister’s Summit here.

DS/gk

Bilateral trade growth prompts expanded cooperation and capacity-building supported by lines of credit and technical assistance. Bilateral trade between India and Malawi showed significant year-on-year recovery, prompting commitments to increase trade volume and diversify the product basket through capacity-building, technical assistance and infrastructure support. India reaffirmed concessional support via a utilised Line of Credit for agricultural and processing projects and noted additional approved LOC projects pending internal approvals, alongside broader regional initiatives including financial pledges, scholarships, institution-building and a Cotton Technical Assistance Programme to bolster trade-related capacity.