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By Sami Zaptia.
Tripoli, 25 December:
On December 23, Anil Trigunayat, Ambassador of India, met Mohamed Abdulaziz, Libya’s Minister for International Cooperation and . . .[restrict]conveyed the felicitations on his appointment.
India’s ambassador briefed the minister on several bilateral projects under consideration. These included the Government of India’s proposal to gift 1000 artificial limbs to injured Libyans as India had invented the well known “Jaipur Foot”; and the establishment of an Indo-Libyan Prosthetics Center; and the Vocational Training and Research Centers which are to be set up under the aegis of India-Africa Forum Summit with the assistance of Government of India.
The Indian ambassador also apprised the minister about several dozen fully funded scholarships, including the training of Libyan diplomats in India, that have been made available to Libya under the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) Program, the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) as well as India-Africa Summit Program which are provided by the Government of India. They also discussed the re-activation of pan African e-network project centers in Libya.
Earlier in December, the ITEC day was held at the Indian Ambassador’s residence. A number of Libyan ITEC graduates, some senior officials of Libyan Foreign Ministry, media persons and the Indian embassy officials had attended the function. The chief guest for the event was Ambassador Ramadan Rahim, Director General in the Libyan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who appreciated India’s assistance to New Libya in capacity building.
India’s ambassador Anil Trigunayat urged the Libyan friends to avail of this opportunity to the maximum extent possible and also offered to arrange some tailor-made programmes, if needed by the Libyan government. India has offered to set up a Vocational Training Centre in Libya.
Every year, around 5000 places are allocated to ITEC partner countries to attend the various civilian training courses in India.
The Govternment of India allocates 25 fully funded training slots to suitable candidates from Libya every year. So far this year 5 Libyan candidates have joined the ITEC courses. A number of other applications are under process. India has also offered the Libyans several other training courses under India-Africa Forum Summit as well as a Professional Course for Foreign Diplomats under FSI training program.
In addition to the above the Indian government had extended $1 million in humanitarian assistance to the Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC) and also on their request provided life saving and essential drugs costing another US $1 million to new Libya.
India has also offered to provide 1000 artificial limbs as a gift from the Government of India to Libya and offered to establish Vocational Training Centers as well as an artificial Limb camp and Centre for injured Libyans. Discussions are also being held for establishment of several other regional research centers under the aegis of India Africa Forum Summit.
The ITEC programme is fully sponsored by the Government of India. 42 Indian institutions conduct around 200 short-term, medium -term and long-term courses every year. The training programme is demand-driven and subjects selected are of interest to developing countries for their working professionals on a wide and diverse range of skills and disciplines.
The courses have been divided into seven broad categories for easy identification. Government courses, IT and Telecommunication, Management, SME/Rural Development, Specialized courses, Technical courses, and Environment and Renewable Energy courses.
The most sought after courses are in the field of Information Technology and Linguistics (English). Training is provided to Government officials in areas such as Finance and Accounts, Audit, Banking, Education Planning and Administration, Parliamentary Studies, Crime Records, Management, Environment etc. [/restrict]
