Ganshinagar: Government of Gujarat organized an Exporters Meet here as a precursor to the Africa Day (January 19) event as a part of Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit 2019.

The meet saw participation of around 200 exporters and trade associations, who export good and services to Africa.

The Interactive Session was organized to help streamline the bottlenecks and hurdles exporters face in carrying out exports to Africa and also to seek suggestions for
improvement in the trade process.

Speaking at the event Principal Secretary, to the Government of Gujarat, S J Haidar invited ‘the exporters to come and register themselves and attend the Vibrant Gujarat Summit and also meet various African companies for exploring business opportunities.’ Also present at the venue were Mamta Verma, Industries Commissioner, J M Gupta, ITS, Addl. DGFT, Praveen Kumar, IES, Jt. Director, Ministry of Commerce, Government of India among others.
Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit was started in the year 2003 by the then Chief Minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi. The Global Summit, in its 9 th edition, has progressively grown in stature from being a platform for investment opportunities to a forum of brain-storming on priorities of the world and contemporary issues of human kind.

As part of the 9 th Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit 2019, for the first time a dedicated ‘Africa Day’ event is being organised on 19 th of January, 2019. While over the years
Vibrant Gujarat Global Summits have witnessed a respectable participation from various countries including African nations, this year the Government has decided to celebrate
the ‘Africa Day’ in a much focused and meaningful way. This event will provide a platform for global leaders and industry captains to come together to discuss the opportunities for strategic partnership, trade and investment with Africa. This will also help in strengthening bilateral trade relations between India and Africa in general and Gujarat and Africa in particular.

India and Africa together make 1/3 rd of the World’s population and share a long lasting cultural and historical relations, economic and political exchanges and cooperation. The
relation between Gujarat and Africa also goes back to centuries with Gujarat being one of oldest trade routes to Africa. Out of the 54 countries of Africa, Gujarat exports to 51
African nations amounting to US$19.6 billion during 2017-18. While trade volumes between India and Africa have grown ten- fold between 2001 and 2015, exports from Gujarat alone to Africa have doubled in the past four years.
The Africa day event will see participation from more than 25 ambassadors and representatives from over 48 countries out of 54 African nations. This event will also have a plenary session which will have representation from senior officials of Government of India, Gujarat and Minister/Ambassador from African countries. It will also have a session on ‘Doing business with Africa’ which will focus on trade opportunities for the Indiansin Africa and vice- versa. A total of 14 B2B and B2G sectoral round-table meetings will be held in various important sectors. More than 2500 have already registered to be a part this event. On the sidelines, the Government of Gujarat is also organising a site visit to important landmarks and industrial areas in and around Ahmedabad for the African delegation.
A dedicated ‘Africa Pavilion’ is being erected at the Global Trade Show this year to be inaugurated on the 17 th of January, 2019 by Prime Minister Modi.

DeshGujarat