Janjivan Bureau / Gandhinagar: On the final day of the 52nd AfDB Annual Meetings 2017, Union Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs Shri Arjun Ram Meghwal. He said that India can help Africa achieve its Sustainable Development Goals by sharing its experiences. He also talked about how India’s involvement in Africa’s health sector has been steadily growing and cited the fact that India is the third largest pharma supplier to Africa.
Meghwal spoke on how Africa today faces major problems in the health sector, including shortages of doctors, nurses and lack of developed health infrastructure. But while Africa has improved its overall average expenditure on health from 4.82% of its GDP in 1995 to 6.03% in 2013, Meghwal stated they require a quantum leap.
Indian government has been improving private sector and government sector cooperation in the health sector, he added. Meghwal stated that the value chain in the area of healthcare needs to be improved.
During the session, panel discussions were held on the benefits of sharing e-governance technologies, between India and African countries. This session a discussion was held on one of the best symbols of emerging South-South cooperation i.e. the upcoming Pan-African E-network project. This project is an ICT (Information Communication Technology) project between India and the African Union that seeks to connect all members of the Unions through a satellite and fibre-optic network.
