AFRICA DIARY
broke protocol and personally received Prime Minister P.V.
Narasimha Rao on his arrival at the airport for the conference
and saw him off . The chemistry between the two leaders was
excellent. India and its technology made an impact at the
summit. At the conference, India became the Convener of the
Group on Solar Energy and Biotechnology. India handed over
solar technology equipment/panels that it had put up at an
exhibition, specially put up for the Dakar summit, promising
to pass on the technology and off ered to train personnel.
These gestures left a deep imprint on their people. The other
major thing announced by the Indian P.M. at the summit was
to set up a Entrepreneurial Training & Development Centre
(ETDC) in Dakar, run it for fi ve years, train personnel from all
over Africa and also the local trainers to prepare them to take
over the running of the Institute after the stipulated period. I
was pleased to hear that the ETDC was inaugurated in 2002.
In 2005, I returned to Dakar for a brief visit and was
delighted to fi nd the many changes that have taken place in
Dakar, since my days. It is now a bustling business city. The
number of Indian businessmen in the country has gone up to
a few thousand. The day I landed in Dakar, I was pleased to
fi nd TATA buses being publicly introduced on Dakar roads
and helped to revamp its urban public transportation system.
In a symbolic gesture, President Abdoulaye Wade and his
Ministers took the initial ride on those buses. This proved
to be a major publicity coup for India in the local media.
During the same visit, I was honoured by Foreign Minister Mr.
Cheikh Tidiane Gadio when he graciously invited me over to
his home to his private birthday party with his close friends.
During my tenure in Senegal India’s trade and commercial
links, as also investments in a range of sectors including
textiles, manufacturing and chemicals started increasing and
the same trend has continued ever since. Back in the 1990s,
Senegal’s largest industrial complex Industrie Chimque du
Senegal (ICS) entered into a joint venture involving the Indian
fertilizer giant IFFCO and started exporting the bulk of its
phosphate output to India. I understand that in 2007, IFFCO
undertook a $100 million project to revive the 6.6 lakh tonne
capacity phosphoric acid plant of the ICS to raise its production
to optimum levels. Here is a success story to talk about. Around
that time in two other sectors, Mr. Vijay Mallya’s companies
were active through acquisition locally of Berger Paints and
the prestigious textile unit SOTIBA. But their operations did
not last long unfortunately and were sold to other parties.
India provides scholarships for training Senegalese
personnel under its Indian Technical and Economic
Cooperation Programme. Senegal is also part of India’s
Pan-African e-Network project that allows it to tap Indian
expertise through telemedicine and tele-education. A hub
earth station of the network is located in the Sebikotane
village near the capital city of Dakar. Senegal, once the
largest importer of rice in Africa, sought and got technological
support from India for increasing its rice production in 2008,
which improved so dramatically that the country has gone
from being an importer to a net rice exporter in a matter of
four years! Kirloskar Brothers had a lot to do with it and their
pumps earned India a wonderful reputation as the ultimate
brand name even in the countryside.
India has extended concessional Lines of Credit (LoC)
to Senegal for:(a) development of rural SMEs and purchase
of agricultural machinery and equipment from India;(b)
supply of buses (400) and spares by Tata Motors;(c) irrigation
projects; (d) Women Poverty Alleviation Programme;(e)
IT Sector, hardware and logistics movement; (f) rural
electrifi cation;(g) fi shing industry development projects;(h)
acquiring railway coaches and locomotives from India; (i)
supply of medical equipment etc. to four hospitals in Senegal
and (j) establishment of a slaughterhouse, with modern
facilities, a tannery and livestock market.
India and Senegal have forged long-lasting and abiding
links. Senegal has realised that the donor aid model from the
Western world, some free grants on ill-conceived projects and
lots of inapplicable/inappropriate advice doled out through
hordes of consultants with little capacity building induced
dependency in these countries and produced no sustainable
results. They are convinced that co-operation with India as
equal partners, on the other hand, put their country on the path
of fast track development. They have seen that partnership
with India has turned out to be more constructive, tangible
and has resulted in skill development, capacity building and
transfer of appropriate technology.
In conclusion, Senegal is fortunate that it has successively
had stable leadership at the Presidential level in Leopold
Senghor, Abdou Diouf, Maitre Abdoulaye Wade. The present
incumbent President Macky Sall is continuing in the same
vein by intensifying eff orts in bringing about improvements
in peoples’ lives and to address endemic structural policy
and governance (both economic and political) challenges
facing the continent.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who briefl y met
President Macky Sall at an international conference, recently
discussed ways to carry forward bilateral relations between the
two countries to new heights. Senegal has now shown interest
in importing three-wheeler scooter rickshaw to ease the urban
transport problem. Many other new avenues are being explored
to carry forward this relationship to a new stature. The future
of India-Senegal relations looks promising indeed.
*Author served in West Africa as Ambassador of India to
Senegal, Mali, Mauritania, Guinea Bissau, Cape Verde and
the Gambia. He was posted in various capacities during his
career spanning 35 years in Indian diplomatic missions in
Moscow, Cairo, Kuala Lumpur, London, Sydney, Fiji and
Jamaica. His last posting was as Ambassador to Ukraine.
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Diplomatist • Vol 7 • Issue 4 • April-May 2019, Noida • 75