India announces grants, IT centres for Pacific Island nations

Natasha Chaku

Cairns, Aug 7 (PTI) India on Friday announced a slew of
initiatives for Pacific Island countries, pledging grants-in-
aid for sustainable development projects and setting up of two
IT centres as part of efforts to expand its Look East policy.

"India sees its engagement with the Pacific region as an
extension of its Look East Policy, which was originally
conceptualised in the early 1990s to boost our engagement with
our South East Asian neighbourhood, the ASEAN," Union External
Affairs Minister S M Krishna said at the Dialogue Partners'
Meeting of the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) here.

"We are confident that the 'Look North' policy of the
Pacific countries and the 'Look East' policy of India will
dovetail to create new synergies as Pacific Island countries
are rich in natural resources and there is vast potential for
cooperation in diverse spheres," he said.

For the "development of the region and for mutual
benefit", he unveiled a number of initiatives for
implementation over the coming year, including grant-in-aid of
USD 125,000 each for the 14 eligible Pacific Island countries
for the supply of equipment and materials for social and
economic programmes and for sustainable development projects.

He said India will organise a workshop on 'capacity
building for strengthening India-Pacific Island countries
cooperation' for the officials of such nations and a course
for diplomats of these countries in the Foreign Service
Institute in New Delhi.

Besides, India will offer assistance for setting up HiWEL
(Hole-in-the-Wall Education Ltd) Learning Stations in all the
PIF countries and IT Centre of Excellence in Fiji and Papua
New Guinea, The External Affairs Minister said.

The 'Hole-in-the-Wall' Education Limited is an initiative
launched by NIIT to provide computer education to the children
in rural areas and urban slums.

"We could offer HiWEL Learning Stations to PIF countries
with the help of M/s NIIT. Depending upon the size of the
population, each PIF country will have either two or three
learning stations," Krishna said.

The IT Centre of Excellence will empower the youth of PIF
countries in global skills and make them competitive for
employment in the local and regional industries, he said.

He also said those countries which did not utilise the
grant-in-aid of USD 1,00,000 offered in previous years may
avail of the same along with offer made this year.

Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Cook Islands, Solomon Islands,
Nauru, Samoa and Vanuatu were among some of the key Pacific
Island countries. PTI SDG
SDE

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