- Wednesday, April 24, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have come together to launch third-country projects in Africa where India has a decades-old footprint and the Gulf nation is trying to make rapid expansion of its base.
According to the Economic Times, a joint India-UAE healthcare delegation went to Tanzania, the country which is the recipient of India’s biggest line of credit in the African continent, to look into investment opportunitiies and meet senior officials of the government.
The visit aimed at identifying specific projects for collaboration with both Tanzania’s government and private healthcare providers.
New Delhi and Abu Dhabi have teamed up to focus in the healthcare sectors in third nations, the Times cited officials as saying.
Under the joint India-UAE Vision Statement which was issued after the virtual meeting of Indian prime minister Narendra Modi and Abu Dhabi president Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al Nayhan in February, the two countries also decided to collaborate in providing health care in “underprivileged countries”.
The joint delegation looked into opportunities to invest in healthcare in Tanzania (like setting up hospitals, diagnostic centres). People from the hospital industry and investors from India and the UAE were part of the delegation, officials added.
Lav Agarwal, India’s additional secretary, health and family welfare ministry, led the Indian delegation while the UAE team was captained by Abdul Wahed Abdul Hakim Al Jabri, head of control department, the UAE’s foreign aid affairs department.
The Times report said that the joint delegation had detailed talks with Tanzania’s health minister Ummy Mwalimu and visited Tanzania Investment Centre and a number of reputed hospitals in Dar es Salaam.
India has been trying to consolidate its footprints in Africa at a time when China has established a deep network in the continent. Will the India-UAE joint venture make Beijing concerned?
