India and Africa have immense scope for cooperation in sectors such as the small and medium enterprises (SMEs), agriculture, finance, and tourism, said the Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Jyotiraditya Scindia in New Delhi on Tuesday.

 “As Africa moves towards more rapid industrialization, there is a growing recognition that small, medium and micro enterprises offer significant avenues for supporting industrialization, generating employment and enhancing local capacities,” he said during a CII event in New Delhi on “New Focus Markets: LAC and Africa.”

He said that both the sides have synergistic interests to cooperate for increasing agriculture output. India is committed to assist African countries for new financial flows and provide concessional lines of credit to support the economic development of African countries.

Also, he added that a joint study group has been constituted with the 19-nation Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) to examine the feasibility of FTA/PTA between India and the economic regional group.

Apart from this, Scindia also mentioned that his ministry is exploring possibilities of entering into similar agreements with the East Africa Community (EAC) and Economic Community of West African States ( ECOWAS).

India’s import from Africa are predominantly crude petroleum, gold and inorganic chemical products. Also, healthcare, information and communication technology (ICT), education, capacity building and skill transfers are few other areas of cooperation.

In 2011, the bilateral trade between India and Africa stood at USD 62 billion.

Further speaking on India’s engagement with the Latin American Countries (LAC) Region, Scindia said both India and LAC advocate liberalization of trade and have entered into Regional Trade Agreements such as the India-Mercosur Preferential Trade Agreement and the India Chile Preferential Trade Agreement.

He identified sectors such as agriculture, pharmaceuticals, mining and renewable energy which has huge potential for cooperation.

He also said that the government is now focusing on free trade agreements for market expansion, which is also an important strategy for promoting exports in the country.

“We have so far concluded 10 free trade agreements, 5 limited scope preferential trade agreements and are in the process of negotiating 16 more agreements. At least 7 more proposals for FTA are under consideration.” he added.

“We aim to conclude these agreements. When completed, such agreements would cover over a hundred countries spread across five continents,” Scindia added.