Africa and the Indian Ocean: Trade, Investments, Global Partnerships, and Lessons

The relationships between Africa and the Indian Ocean span millennia. Between nations in Africa and those on the Indian Ocean there are opportunities for greater trade, for increased investments and for enhanced geo-political cooperation. Further, an evaluation of the economic trajectories of the Africa and Indian Ocean countries provide many important lessons in economic development. These issues were discussed in a series of presentations at the “Africa and the Indian Ocean” conference hosted by New York University in Abu Dhabi in March of 2010, and published in this volume. This paper provides an introduction to the papers in this volume from the 2010 conference.