JOHANNESBURG: India has promised African nations aid, technological and education assistance as part of trade talks in Ethiopia, as it strives to catch up with China in what has been dubbed ''the new scramble for Africa''.
The Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, received a red-carpet welcome as he led a delegation to the India-Africa summit in Addis Ababa on Monday, aiming to trumpet historical and cultural links in an effort to emerge from Beijing's shadow.
''The India-Africa partnership rests on three pillars of capacity building and skill transfer, trade and infrastructure development,'' he said. ''Africa is emerging as a new growth pole of the world, while India is on a path of sustained and rapid economic development.''
India's wooing of Africa includes a new centre in Uganda to train businesses about global markets, a diamond processing facility in Botswana, and assistance to cotton farmers in four of the continent's poorest countries.
The trade meeting is due to be attended by 15 African leaders. On its fringes is an India show with business seminars, cultural projects and a trade exhibition.
Opening the India show on Friday, the Commerce and Industry Minister, Anand Sharma, said bilateral trade between India and Africa, which was at ''a meagre $US3 billion at the turn of the century'', had crossed the $US46 billion mark last year and was well on its way to a target of $US70 billion by 2015.
Some 250 Indian companies have invested, mainly in telecommunications, chemical and mining companies.
Brahma Chellaney, of the Centre for Policy Research in Delhi, said: ''India is massively playing catch-up to China in Africa, and only in recent years is it trying to engage the continent in a serious way.''
The competition between the two for resources, minerals and food to fuel their economies has been likened by commentators to the so-called scramble for Africa among European countries in the 19th century.
India is especially focused on energy. It imports 70 per cent of its oil and has turned to new suppliers such as Nigeria, Sudan and Angola to reduce its dependence on the Middle East. It also needs uranium for its nuclear program.
India is also looking to Africa to expand its diplomatic influence, especially its bid for a seat on an expanded UN Security Council.
But, like China before it, India has been criticised for turning a blind eye to human rights abuses and corruption in Africa. Its state-owned oil company has invested in Sudanese oil, and Delhi avoided criticising the Khartoum government at the height of the Darfur crisis.
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