New Delhi (Andara) – India is making efforts to help the African Union in the group of 20 major global economies (G20).
„India wants the African Union to become a member of the G20 during our presidency,” India’s G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant told a press conference.
The Government of India hopes that the inclusion of the African Union as a member of the G20 will further encourage discussions and efforts to resolve the issues of the Global South.
The Global South is a term applied to developing and least developed countries or low-income economies.
As the term suggests, the Global South includes countries whose economies are not yet fully developed and face challenges such as low per capita income, high unemployment, and a lack of valuable capital such as technology.
„Global South” refers to regions of Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Oceania.
According to Chandrajit Banerjee, director-general of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), India, which will chair the G20 this year, wants to be more vocal in the interests of the Global South.
„We want to be the 'voice’ of the Global South and we really want to focus and start from India and make a strong commitment to integration with Africa,” he said.
For this reason, India seeks to accelerate Africa’s integration into the global economy by making the African Union a member of the G20, he added.
One of these initiatives will be undertaken through a business sector task force formed by India as part of its G20 leadership, namely the P20 India Action Council on African Economic Integration.
According to CII, India will undertake several initiatives to support African economic integration, including promoting strong human capital outcomes in health, education and skills; Transforming agriculture and food systems to sustainably improve productivity, food security and nutrition levels; supporting trade to harness the potential of integration in regional and global value chains; and bridging physical and digital connectivity gaps by supporting investment infrastructure.
CII, as the B20 Secretariat, supports the organization of various B20 India meetings under the overarching theme of RAISE, which stands for “Responsible, Accelerated, Innovative, Sustainable and Equitable” Businesses.
Business 20 (B20) is the official G20 dialogue forum for the global business community.
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