Background: The seminar was conducted by the Eximius Centre of the Export Import Bank of India, at Bangalore on November 27, 2000. The objective of this seminar was to create awareness among the project exporters, suppliers of civil works & raw materials and consultants in India on the forthcoming business opportunities in AfDB funded projects, and to educate them on the procedures and guidelines for bidding effectively in such projects. The seminar was conducted in four Centres, viz, New Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta and Bangalore, in association with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

Faculty: Mr. Taisto Huimasalo, Executive Director for India in AfDB, Ms. Anne Kabagambe, Senior Co-operation Officer, AfDB, Mr. Ahmed Mohamed Benbarka, Principal Procurement Officer, AfDB and Mr. Peter G Rwelamira, Principal Investment Officer, AfDB were the speakers for the seminar.

Target Sectors: The seminar was oriented towards targeting project exporters, civil work contractors, suppliers of project goods & machinery and consultants.

Summary of Proceedings: Mr. T. Huimasalo made the keynote address in the seminar. Mr. Huimasalo made an introduction to the African continent, its strengths and weaknesses and its strive to achieve development to become a part of world economic community. Mr. Huimasalo also gave an introduction to the Afdican Development Bank, its vision and the annual lending levels. While doing so, Mr. Huimasal mentioned that India, being a member of the Bank and contributor to the African Development Fund, is one of the trustworthy partners of the Bank in Africa. Mr. Huimasalo conveyed that there are plenty of similarities on the problems faced by India and Africa in variety of areas. India, having achieved to overcome such problems through technology development in many areas, should act as a guide to African countries in technological development and resource utilisation techniques.

Ms. Anne Kabagambe addressed the seminar on the Operations of African Development Bank. Ms. Kabagambe gave an outline on the project cycle of the projects supported by African Development Bank. It was informed that the Country Strategy Paper is the main planning document for operations providing a three-year rolling lending programme based on the country portfolio review. On the strategic areas of lending by the Bank, Ms. Kabagambe listed out the following major criteria like investment in production capacity and infrastructure, private sector development, policy reforms and promotion of regional integration. Ms. Kabagambe indicated that the total lending programme for the Bank group in the year 2000 is 2156 million Unit of Account (UA) for 184 projects, which exceeds lending objectives by 11%.

Mr. Rwelamira made a presentation on private sector operations of the AfDB. His presentation gave an outlook of investment environment and business confidence level in Africa, the economic changes that are taking place across the continent and emerging opportunities for flow of investment from India. Mr. Rwelamira also made a presentation on the organisation structure of the Private Sector Development Division in AfDB, its operations and functions as a catalyst in mobilizing investment from many sources.

Mr. Benbarka made a presentation on the 'Procurement Opportunities and Policies' for bidding in AfDB projects. Mr. Benbarka's presentation was in two parts, one on the guidelines for procurement of goods and works and the other on procedure for the use of consultants. Mr. Benbarka outlined the nature, advertisement, pre-qualification and invitation to International Competitive Bidding (ICB), issue and delivery of bidding documents, rules and procedures of bid opening and bid evaluation in his address. In the second part of the presentation, Mr. Benbarka outlined the rules and procedures for usage of consultancy services, examination and evaluation of proposals, contract negotiation, award of contract, procedures for usage of individual consultants by borrowers.

There was also a presentation on Exim Bank's products and services with focus on multilateral funded projects overseas.

The faculty members had one to one meetings with the participants with the objective of addressing specific queries raised by the participants.