Malawi and India on Friday signed four bilateral agreements through which the two countries would cooperate in the areas of agriculture, mineral resource development, small and medium enterprises development, health and foreign office consultations.
The agreements were signed in the Malawi capital Lilongwe by the visiting Indian Vice President, Shri M. Hamid Ansari and his Malawian
counterpart, Joyce Banda.
The Indian vice president is on a three-day official visit to Malawi which started Thursday and would end on Saturday.
Speaking before putting pen to paper, Malawi's vice president, Joyce Banda, stated that by the agreements Malawi would benefit from India's technological advancements in various sectors especially agriculture and irrigation.
She said India had pledged to support Malawi's development efforts in the coming five years through the nine priority sectors that the Malawi government would concentrate between 2009 and 2014 as part of its economic development agenda.
On his part, the Indian vice president pledged his country's support towards Malawi's development saying his government was ready to work with Malawi in various sectors since the two countries shared common beliefs.
"We will work together to ensure that vital interests of developing countries like Malawi are protected and no barriers are placed that
constrain their developmental aspirations," said Ansari.
He said it was his strongest belief that India's contribution towards building Malawi's own capacities in various development endeavors was a valuable component of the partnership between the two countries.
Ansari has therefore pledged a 50-million-U.S.dollar line of credit for Malawi that the Indian government would provide to the southern African country as part of the cooperation between the two countries.
Earlier in the day, the Indian vice president paid homage to Malawi's founding leader, Hasting Banda by laying a wreath on his mausoleum in Lilongwe.
Bilateral trade between Malawi and India has grown by over 100 percent between 2003/04 and 2007/08 from 43.2 million dollars to 79.7 million
dollars, according to the Indian Embassy in Lusaka, Zambia.