Making A Difference

A Surti On Lake Victoria

Extensively trodden by Chinese capital, Rwanda and Uganda offer India a trade invite it can’t decline

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A Surti On Lake Victoria
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It is difficult to ignore China’s presence in Africa. Every single nation of the 54 countries in the continent, whether big or small, oil producer or possessor of huge mineral deposits, spurs its investors and businessmen to engage with them in a manner that benefits Chinese business enterprises. In the process, it also helps in furthering the country’s interests. Indeed, the Dragon’s footprint in Africa is large and gets larger by the day.

As Vice-President Hamid Ansari visits East Africa’s Great Lake region to strengthen New Delhi’s relations with Rwanda and Uganda, it is perhaps a legitimate question to ask if India can be a hedge to China in Africa.

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“We are not in competition with any country,” says Ansari.

But senior members of his delegation explain that his remarks indicate India cannot be a match for China’s ‘cheque book diplomacy’ policy in Africa-- it buys allegiance of local leaders, mops up resources and builds various structures in the name of helping the countries in reaching their development goal.

That policy is clearly evident in both Rwanda and Uganda. Rwanda’s tallest building, the Kigali City Tower, the structure next door that houses the Rwandan foreign ministry, as well as the various hotels, hospitals and schools that dot the capital’s landscape, as well as 80 per cent of the country’s roads, is built by the Chinese. Today, Rwanda’s GDP growth is over 8 per cent, the highest in Africa.

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Equally prominently, in neighbouring Uganda, the Mandela National Stadium, the $2 billion worth hydro-power project dam in the west, the highway connecting Entebbe with Kampala, are all built by China. It is Uganda’s top investor and accounts for half of its foreign investment.

All this does not mean India is going to give a walk-over to the Chinese.

“India needs to offer an alternative and play according to its strength,” points out a senior MEA official. This means India’s policy in Africa will have to be more in tune with the people’s requirements. One area which is stressed upon a lot is innovative technology and related fields—which is not only cheap but also easy to learn and adopt. Thus it can go a long way to create a large pool of local entrepreneurs. Ansari’s visit is part of the NDA government’s initiative to engage meaningfully and in a sustained manner with African countries.

India has had a long history of engagement with the continent. It had begun centuries back ago when seafaring Ind­ian merchants from India’s west coast arr­ived at Africa’s east coast and forged commercial bonds with traders. In the age of decolonisation, India became the model and inspiration for many African countries as they emerged as independent nations. The Cold War brought several African leaders to make common cause with India at the Non-Aligned Movement. However, the continent also turned into a new battleground. In their fight for supremacy over African countries, the US and USSR triggered and fostered long, bloody struggles and sharp divisions among, and within, African countries. For a variety of reasons, India’s subsequent engagement with Africa slackened and its focus shifted elsewhere, allowing space for others to expand their influence.

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“Relations with countries need to be nurtured and you have to engage regularly with friends,” acknowledges Ansari, a former diplomat.

An attempt towards this was made by India in 2008, when it held an India-Afr­ica Summit with some key countries and then followed it up with another one in 2011. But it was only after the 2015 India-Africa Summit, when leaders of all 54 African countries were invited, that New Delhi’s seriousness about engaging Africa became evident.

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Illustration by R Prasad

Now, PM Narendra Modi has formed a troika with President Pranab Mukherjee and  Vice-President Ansari in a plan that would see India’s seniormost leaders take turns to travel to African nations and engage with top political lea­­ders there. Between them they have already covered a dozen African countries. As Ansari’s tour of Rwanda and Uganda—both a first-ever bilateral visit to these nations at his level—suggests, many such visits are due in the coming years.

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But political intent notwithstanding, questions remain about what India, or for that matter even China, expect to gain from their engagement with these East African countries?

Rwanda is a landlocked nation of 26,000 sq kms with a population of 12 million. Since it has no oil or significant mineral deposit, Rwanda can hardly be called an attractive destination for foreign investors. Land-locked Uganda, with an area of 2,41,00 sq kms and a population of 18 million people, is bigger and can be called a medium-sized African country. It has discovered oil but is yet to fully harness its benefit. Though it is a major producer of coffee, tea and cotton, it has been hurt badly by the global economic downturn and is still considered one of the poorest countries in the world.

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Significantly, both Rwanda and Uganda are among the most peaceful and stable countries in Africa. Both Rwandan President Paul Kagame and his Ugandan counterpart, Yoweri Kauta Museveni, have had long stints in power—Kagame for 17 years and Museveni since 1986. Though their iron rule has attracted the occasional opprobrium from liberal quarters, they also draw praise from others for successfully bridging grievous internal fissures, leading rival groups to live together harmoniously.

Though Uganda has been maintaining an economic growth rate of six per cent, it is Rwanda that, as Africa’s fastest growing economy and as the easiest place to do business in the continent, has caught the imagination of foreign investors. “There is also zero bureaucracy in Rwanda and one can start a business venture, once formalities are complete, within a day,” says an impressed Ficci official in Kigali at a business meet between the two sides.

Another advantage for India is the presence of a sizeable diaspora in both countries. Rwanda has nearly 3,000 Indians working in various fields while in Uganda, the Indian community had always played a key role in the country’s economy. Though 60,000 people from the flourishing Indian trading community was banished by Idi Amin in 1972 (that policy was reversed when Museveni came to power), the Indian diaspora in Uganda numbers over 30,000 today. Acknowledging this, Rwandan PM Anastase Murekezi told business leaders of the two countries that the presence of the Indian diaspora can play the role of a bridge to bring the two business communities together.

In another development, there are signs of dissatisfaction in Uganda with the manner in which China does business—a parliamentary panel some months back asked a Chinese CEO to explain how his company got the contract for building the expressway at Entebbe. There are also concerns among Ugandans in the growing rate of Chinese nationals marrying local girls in an attempt to stay on in the country to look after their business interests. Indians, on the other hand, have a more benign presence and image in the region.

In addition, India continues to be the favoured destination for Rwandan and Ugandan students as well as an affordable country for medical treatment for most people in the region.

But two things might change things dramatically in the coming days. First, Museveni made it clear to Ansari in their meeting that Uganda would prefer Indian industries, especially its car manufacturers, to start setting up pla­nts in Uganda rather than selling its products after re-assembling them in the country. Secondly, the discovery of oil in Uganda can drastically change its economy and open up opportunities for countries like India to play a more meaningful role. With Rwanda also trying to offer itself as the next business hub and airways transit point, Indian engagement with the region can dramatically alter things for both countries.

So, if Ansari’s visit is not to be rem­embered as one of the many missed opp­ortunities that India has had in deepening its ties with Africa, this could well lay the ground-work for a situation where African nations in general and the Rwandans and Ugandans in particular can have a viable growth option other than that made in China. For that to fructify, we will be waiting for the trade winds to blow across the Indian Ocean as keenly as the people from East Africa’s scenic and diverse Great Lake region.

By Pranay Sharma in Kigali and Kampala

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