Date:24/07/2006 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2006/07/24/stories/2006072400541400.htm

Back It's destination Africa for Exim Bank

Our Bureau

Sees big prospects emerge from West African nations.

MR T.C. VENKAT SUBRAMANIAN

Kolkata , July 23

It will be destination Africa for Export Import Bank of India, thanks to a fresh surge of opportunities that the continent is expected to throw up in the days ahead.

Exim Bank, which hopes to associate itself with a number of projects taken up by Indian companies in Africa, sees big prospects emerge from West African nations.

The bank, said Mr T.C. Venkat Subramanian, Chairman and Managing Director, has already spotted opportunities in countries such as Senegal and Sudan, where Indian business houses have started establishing their presence. Many of these nations are equipped with substantial mineral wealth, which attracts investors from everywhere.

In Senegal, for instance, the Tatas have supplied buses (replacing French-made buses), while petroleum major ONGC has stepped into Sudan. The replacement of French buses, incidentally, already seems to have attracted the attention of the French Government; the latter is known to have conducted a review of the situation.

Competition from China

"The Chinese have made great inroads into Africa in the past few years, and are already giving Indian companies some competition. We need to support the efforts being put in by our companies," the Exim Bank CMD said. He was addressing a meeting organised by FICCI here.