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Maghreb seeks greater economic partnership with India
Friday February 08, 2013 09:13:55 PM,
IANS
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New Delhi: The Maghreb
region in northwest Africa contributes 20 percent of the African
continent's GDP and can prove a strong economic partner for India
with its reserves of bydrocarbons and metals and also for tourism,
said envoys of the region here Friday.
Addressing a conference on the Maghreb and India, Algerian envoy
Mohammed Hacene Echarif voiced the region's unhappiness at India
continuing to "look at us as an extension of the Middle East...We
are not (an extension)."
"We have our own specificities, and our kind of community of
Berber-Arab, not Arab..," the envoy said at a conference organised
by think tank Society for Policy Studies (SPS) and the India
International Centre here.
"Maghreb is not really known by India, which is disappointing,"
Echarif said, adding that the region which comprises the countries
of Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia, has "only nine
percent of the African continent's population but contributes to
20 percent of the GDP".
The region, despite the political turbulence, has garnered more
than $35 million in FDI in the past seven years in the fields of
automotives, aerospace, iron and steel among others. The Maghreb
has seen a yearly growth 5.5 percent compared to 3.5 percent
growth in the rest of Africa and 1.8 percent growth in the
Mediterranean region, he said.
Echarif said full FTA among the countries of the region would
boost communication and make it more attractive to foreign
investment.
The Algerian envoy said that Maghreb should be the "next logical
location for Indian companies to diversify and expand" and called
for Maghreb countries to become the "new target of Indian
diplomacy".
Tunisian Ambassador Tarek Azouz said Tunisia is "looking for
diversification... and looking East to India and China."
Rajiv Bhatia, director general, Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA),
said there has been a "certain sense of neglect of Maghreb by
India" and hoped the conference would be a first step in the
exercise of connecting with the region.
He also stressed on the need for India and the Maghreb Arab Union
to forge new links, including in the exchange of scholars.
The Maghreb has an area of over six million sq km. Strategically
located, the region provides a valuable transit to southern Europe
and the EU market.
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