Vijay Rupani inaugurates the exhibition at AfDB Annual Meeting at Mahatma Mandir

GANDHINAGAR, 22 May 2017: Shri Vijay Rupani, Chief Minister of Gujarat inaugurated the India & Africa: Partners in Growth exhibition at Mahatma Mandir in Gandhinagar on the sidelines of the Annual Meeting of the African Development Bank (AfDB) this morning.
Shri Rupani was accompanied by Mr.Pierre Guislain, Vice President, African Development Bank; Shri Arjun Ram Meghwal, MoS Finance, Govt.of India; Shri Santosh Gangwar, MoS Finance, Govt.of India and Mr. Pankaj Patel, President, FICCI.
Shri Rupani and other dignitaries also took a round of the exhibition with great interest in the exhibits.
This exposition is organised by Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) in association with the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA), Ministry of Finance, Govt.of India. The exhibition is spread over 3,275 sq.m approx space and 68 companies are showcasing their products and services in their attractive stalls.
The Exhibition is focusing on High 5s priority sectors identified by the African Development for Africa - Energy, Agriculture, Innovation & Technology, Infrastructure and Health & Pharma.
Some prominent exhibitors are - Escort Agri Machinery, Jain Irrigation Systems, TAFE from agriculture sector; Adani Solar, Skipper Ltd., International Solar Alliance from Energy; Zydus Cadila, Indus Healthcare, Fabtech Technologies from Pharma & Healthcare; Ashok Leyland, L&T Infra, Gammon India from Infrastructure and Akar Innovation Pvt. Ltd., Tide Technocrats and
Hidden Brains from Innovation area among others.
India joined the African Development Bank over 30 years back in 1983. Since then there has been a significant increase in trade with Africa during this period and currently it stands at USD 56.7 billion in 2015-16. Indian exports to African countries is growing in double figures and in 2015-16 it stood at 25 billion in USD terms. Indian imports from Africa was USD 31.7 billion in 2015-16.
In 2015, at the India-Africa Forum, Prime Minister Modi announced USD 10 Billion line of credit to Indian companies who wish to invest in African countries over next 5 years. This itself underlines India's commitment to the economic growth of Africa.
This exposition will be running till 26th May at Mahatma Mandir.