Embassy of India

ABIDJAN - COTE D'IVOIRE

Namaskar and Good evening to all.

Hon’ble Minister of State for External Affairs & Parliamentary Affairs, H E V. Muraleedharan, Prominent members of Indian community in Cote d’Ivoire and my dear colleagues.  At the outset let take this opportunity to thank hon’ble Minister for sparing his time to interact with the community despite his heavy schedules during a parliament session. This demonstrates the importance he attaches for community affairs. Thank you, sir, your zeal and efforts for enhancing community welfare in various part of the world are well known and are praise worthy.

Sir, Indian community in Cote d'Ivoire is not big but very vibrant. Community has been a reliable partner of Embassy in promoting India through various commercial & cultural activities, especially during the celebrations of AKAM. These activities have certainly made India & Indians more visible and would go a long way in further cementing our close & strong ties with the host country.

Sir, there has been an increasing number of Indian businesses who are keenly interested to expand their operations in this bright spot of Ivorian market and also to tape the large hinterland markets. To help these Indian businesses smoothen their first arrival activities, we have been able to established the Indian chamber of Commerce and Industry which was inaugurated by the Minister of Commerce and Industry.

Cote d'Ivoire may be geographically far from India but is an important player who wield great influence in west Africa especially among the Francophone countries. Cote d’Ivoire has been a reliable and important partner bilaterally as also in multilateral fora. Cote d’Ivoire could become an important commercial partner in India’s journey towards US$5trillion economy. I am sure we would certainly enrich ourselves from your ideas & advise drawn from your vast experiences during the course of our discussion.  I am confident this interaction would throw up ideas and suggestions to further strengthen our bilateral ties while guarding our national interest.

Without much ado I will now request community leaders to take their time starting with Mr Raja Chandra Sekhar, Founding President of ICCI- CI, Hiro and Rajesh.

Thank You.