INDIA-GABON

Context

Key Points

• With a growth-oriented leader at the helm, the future for Gabon looks extremely promising.
• The country is very strategically placing itself as a lucrative destination for investors who can further steer development in the country.
• President Ali Bongo Ondimba said that Africa is the Continent of the future and is full of opportunities.
• "It is now for the Africans to ensure that these opportunities are not missed. The youth, who are the future, needs to be active and ambitious".

About 

• The country has a small population but abundant natural resources.
• These factors have contributed to Gabon becoming one of the wealthier African nations in recent years.
• It shares borders with Cameroon the Republic of the Congo and Equatorial Guinea.
• A country with significant areas of protected parkland, Gabon has a tropical climate.

Indian investments

• After an eight-year estrangement, Gabon returned to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) fold in 2021, which was one of the pledges of good governance presented by President Ondimba's government to its International Monetary Fund (IMF) interlocutors.
• Indian investments in Gabon have been diverse and include timber, hydrocarbons, Pharmaceuticals production and telecommunications.
• Gabon Special Economic Zone (GSEZ) of Nkok, created in 2010, welcomed 50 Indian companies, out of the 80 set there.
• Outside the GSEZ Nkok, Indian businesses are engaged in crude oil extraction, mining exploration and telecommunications.

India's Export and Imports

• India's main items of export to Gabon are meat and edible meat offal, plastic and articles thereof, iron and steel, machinery and mechanical appliances and electrical machinery and equipment.
• Its main items of import comprised ores, slag and ash mineral fuels, mineral oils and products of their distillation, bituminous substances and mineral waxes.

Conclusion

• The scope for growth is not limited to just these items and the opportunities are quite huge, waiting to be tapped. 
• To sum up, India is a highly ranked partner to Gabon, second in its exportations after China.