Speaking at the conference today, secretary to India’s Ministry of Power P Uma Shankar said there was potential for Indian investment in southern African countries, in particular their coal assets.

India is the world’s fastest-growing free market democracy and is projected to be the world’s second-largest economy by 2050.

Its high-growth economy has resulted in an upshot in demand for energy, with around 2% of gross domestic product coming from the electricity sector.

Shankar noted the huge demand for power had witnessed increased investments from Indian companies in coal assets in Africa, which was in the top five global coal exporters.

“The coal in Africa is ideally suited for blending with coal produced in India for the thermal plants,” he said. “We also seek to meet local demand for energy use and we will use African resources in that regard from all the African nations.”

Additional Secretary to Minister of Mines SK Srivastava said India, above all, needed coking coal.

India’s requirement was 40 million tonnes, which the country could not meet with domestic production alone. This requirement would be pushed up to 72.6Mt by 2015 and 140Mt by 2020.

“Our current imports are currently from Australia,” he said. “You know what is happening in Australia and therefore we have started exploring opportunities other than Australia.

“I know South Africa has a limited quantum of coking coal but there are many other regions in Africa, especially Mozambique, which has very high quantities of coking coal and we wish to move into partnerships with these regions like Mozambique for meeting our supply of coking coal.”

Srivastava said that other than coal, India would like to discuss investment in Africa’s steel and base metals sectors.

The news comes after reports that CBB India president RK Nagia told delegates at a coal conference earlier this month that India would import 22Mt of coal from South Africa this year compared to 18Mt in 2010.

Meanwhile, Vice-minister of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan the Honorable Yoshikatsu Nakayama echoed the views of the Indians, telling delegates that strengthening his country’s relationship with Africa was “essential”.

“Many Japanese used to think that Africa was ‘a remote continent’,” he said.

“However, that is not true. Africa ... is closely related to Japanese people’s everyday lives.

“Japan has advanced technologies, skilled people and experience in promoting a variety of industries. Africa is endowed with abundant mineral resources and has a dynamically growing market. Africa and Japan can complement each other. I believe we are ideal partners, who can work together in mutually beneficial ways.”

Nakayama told delegates that potential areas of cooperation with African countries included resource developments, such as promoting geological surveys in Africa’s greenfields regions with satellite remote-sensing technology and transferring exploration projects to the development phase.

“Currently, JOGMEC [Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation] and Japanese private companies are conducting commercial exploration on uranium in Namibia,” he said.

“In addition, a Japanese company, together with Korean and Canadian partners, is constructing mining and smelting facilities in Madagascar. The government of Japan is prepared to give financial and technical support to facilitate these projects in the development stage.”

Nakayama also said infrastructure development was another area of potential cooperation.