Why in news?
- An annual meeting of the African Development Bank (AfDB) held recently in Gandhinagar, Gujarat.
- Prime Minster released a vision document on the “Asia Africa Growth Corridor (AAGC)”.
What is AAGC?
- It is a study jointly produced by three research institutions of India and Japan in consultation with other Asian and African think tanks.
- It envisages closer engagement between India and Africa for “sustainable and innovative development”.
- It will be anchored to four pillars:
- Development and cooperation projects;
- Quality infrastructure and institutional connectivity;
- Enhancing capacities and skills and
- People-to-people partnership.
- It will accord priority to development projects in health and pharmaceuticals, agriculture and agro-processing, disaster management, and skill enhancement.
- It will have special focus on Africa, India and South Asia, Southeast Asia, East Asia and Oceania.
How it is different from China’s OBOR?
- The approaches of India and China towards Africa are essentially different.
- China concentrates on infrastructure and cheque-book diplomacy, whereas India promotes a broader spectrum of cooperation projects and programmes focussed on the development of Africa’s human resources.
- China goes solo, while India is desirous of working with other willing nations to assist Africa as per the latter’s priorities.
What should be done to make AAGC effective?
- China is rapidly expanding its footprint in Africa.
- So India and Japan do not have the luxury of time.
- India and Japan should immediately initiate a few joint pilot projects involving the companies of India, Japan and a few African countries in identified areas such as health care, agriculture and blue economy.
- They should increase the scope of their development projects, create synergy among themselves and engage proactively with other willing partners.
Source: The Hindu