The Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Rob Davies, will travel to India this weekend to address the South Africa India Chief Executives Officer’s Forum (SA-India CEOs) that will be held next week Monday, 29 August 2011, at New Delhi.
The SA-India CEOs Forum is a platform for business community interaction between SA and India, and is co-chaired by Mr Patrice Motsepe and Mr Ratan Tata.
Minister Davies says that the forum has identified five key areas that seek to enhance trade and investment between the two countries.
‘These areas they include Financial Services (Banking), Pharmaceutical & Healthcare, Mining, Manufacturing, and Infrastructure & Energy. Moreover, both sides aim to diversify and expand export basket to include more value added products, set up dedicated investment forums and strengthening links between the small medium enterprise (SME) sectors’ said Davies.
South Africa’s exports to India increased at a fast rate compared to the imports from India thereby reaching R22 billion during 2010. On average, South Africa’s exports to India increased by 22% while the imports increased by 34% between 2009 and 2010. Impressively, our exports have increased by an average of 172% over the past four years, while our imports from India increased by 55% during the same period.
During 2010, India ranked South Africa’s ninth global trading partner. Furthermore, India was South Africa’s third export and import partner on the Asian continent after China and Japan. India is also one of SA largest sources for foreign direct investment.
Enquiries:
Sidwell Medupe
Tel: 012 394 1650
Cell: 079 492 1774
E-mail: MSMedupe@thedti.gov.za
Source: Department of Trade and Industry
