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NEW DELHI: New Delhi and Paris plan to launch a fund later this year to support startups and climate-focused innovation in Indo-Pacific countries, two people familiar with the matter said.
The wording of the funding agreement and funding amounts have been agreed, with the potential for projects to be funded in the western Indian Ocean as well as the wider Indo-Pacific.
Following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to France on Bastille Day in July 2023, the two countries agreed to establish the fund.
“India and France are partnering for the Indo-Pacific Triangular Cooperation (IPTDC) Fund, which aims to support climate change and SDG-focused innovation and start-ups in Indo-Pacific third countries through a unique model of triangular development cooperation. In the ‘Horizon 2047’ joint vision statement released during PM Modi’s visit, the two countries said their goal is to accelerate the expansion of green technologies being developed in the region. France is an important strategic partner for India in the Indo-Pacific and an important strategic partner for India as well. Overseas territories in the region include La Réunion, New Caledonia and French Polynesia.
“Both countries will jointly identify projects to be supported through the IPTDC Fund. This initiative marks an important step forward in providing viable and transparent financing alternatives for innovators in the Indo-Pacific region and will continue to grow in 2020.” It will also be an important pillar of the India-EU Connected Partnership, which will be launched in 2020,” they continued.
Questions sent to the foreign ministries of India and France went unanswered as of press time.
India has a triangular cooperation mechanism with Germany, the US and the UK. India is working with Japan and Bangladesh to improve trade and connectivity through the Bay of Bengal Northeast Industrial Value Chain Initiative. The goal is to attract manufacturing to the Northeast and create new regional supply chains that connect these relatively underdeveloped states to broader Asian markets. India, in collaboration with Germany, has launched projects in Ghana, Cameroon, Malawi and Peru. Current projects range from promoting agribusiness among women in Malawi to implementing agritechnology to boost potato production in Cameroon. Germany’s official technical assistance organization GIZ said projects in Ethiopia and Madagascar were also being evaluated.
Under the Global Innovation Partnership, India and the UK are considering similar initiatives that would leverage Indian innovation to boost development in strategically important third countries. The Mint previously reported that discussions were underway regarding potential cooperation on renewable energy projects in Sri Lanka as part of finalizing the list of countries for the program, which was completed in early 2019. It is planned that
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