India extends USD 20 million credit to Botswana, Africa's model democracy

By Devirupa Mitra, Gaborone (Botswana), Jan 10 : India has extended a line of credit of USD 20 million and a grant of USD 8 million to the southern African state of Botswana, a country often held up as a model of good governance in Africa and whose diamond resource is eyed by the world.

Indian Vice President Mohammed Hamid Ansari, who arrived in Gaborene Saturday on the last leg of his tri-nation African trip, held talks with his counterpart Momfati Merafhe before announced that a grant of USD 8 million for projects in the social sector as well as USD 20 million line of credit for development of infrastructure projects.

The country has one of the highest income levels in Africa at USD 5497 per capita gross domestic product. It has a population of just 1.8 million in an area of 5,82,000 square kilometres, with exports of diamonds being its lifeblood.

"The vice president did indicate an interest in mining in Botswana," Secretary (West), Ministry of External Affairs Vivek Katju told reporters, but said that the issue of access to Botswana diamonds was not raised in the talks.

"Botswana is the world's first or second largest diamond producer. This is of direct interest to us, as we have a large and prosperous diamond

cutting industry in Gujarat," Ansari had told reporters at the beginning of his trip..

This was the first Indian visit by a senior leader since the visit of then Vice President R Venkatraman in 1986 to attend 20th anniversary of Botswana's independence from the British.

One of the biggest role of India with Botswana has been in capacity building and training of professionals. "The Botswana side expressed great gratitude for the assistance that Botswana has received in developing capacity, including training of defence forces," said Katju.

India also has a large team from Indian Army and Indian Air Force which has been imparting training to the defence forces. "The quality of the training was recognised by the Botswana Vice President," he said.

Ansari in his speech at the banquet said that India was ready to share "cutting edge expertise achieved and technologies developed by India in agriculture, pharmaceuticals, small and medium enterprises, information technology, engineering and the various aspects of the diamond industry".

Incidentally, Botswana also specifically mentioned the computer training being provided by private Indian company, NIIT Ltd, which has set up shop in the southern African state, at the formal talks.

Katju added that Botswana praised India as a "dependable and trusted economic partner". In regional issues, both countries discussed the situation in Botswana's neighbour, Zimbabwe and Democratic Republic of Congo.

"Botswana seeks that there should be a democratic Zimbabwe and free and fair elections. My impression is that this is shared by African Union and we also share this," he said.

Botswana also agrees there was need for reform of the United Nations system, including the United Nations Security Council.

(Devirupa Mitra can be contacted at devirupa.m@ians.in)