Prime Minister of India, Mr Narendra Modi will be visiting South Africa on 8 July 2016. India is now SA 6th largest trade partner. Trade in 2015 was almost R95 billion. Trade with India represented 4.9% of SA imports and 4.1% of exports.
South Africa’s Trade statistics shows that India’s exports to South Africa increased from R29 billion in 2011 to R54 billion in 2015, while South Africa’s exports to India increased from R24 billion in 2011 to R41 billion. The trade surplus is in favour of India. Efforts are underway to promote SA exports of especially value added products.
In order to deal with the trade imbalance, the dti has undertaken outward missions to India including:
- India International Trade Fair (IITF), November 2015 (funded by the dti’s EMIA Scheme).
- The 7th Investment and Trade Initiative (ITI), February 2016 (funded by the dti’s EMIA Scheme). The following sectors were targeted for promotion: agro processing, beneficiated metals and mining technology, automotive components, electro-technical and logistics
- Defence Expo India, March 2016 facilitated by the Aerospace, Marine, and Defence (AMD) Export Council.
The Prime Minister is expected to be accompanied by a high level business delegation. The Business Forum will take place at CSIR on Friday, 8 July 2016. The Business Forum will be preceded by the meeting of the South Africa – India CEOs Forum.
There is considerable interaction between South Africa and India in the multilateral context. This includes regular meetings on IBSA, BRICS and India-Africa Forum Summit.
Post our democracy, India’s investment into South Africa have been in numerous sectors such as in the mining industry, financial services, pharmaceutical sector and manufacturing. South Africa has successfully attracted investment from large Indian multinationals such as Tata, Wipro, Cipla and Apollo tyres amongst others. Companies such as Tata and CIPLA have been early movers and have invested in different projects in South Africa and have a good experience of South Africa as an investment destination.
Tata has invested mining, ICT, hospitality, automotive and energy. CIPLA has for example supported the roll out of ARVs and making medicines more affordable to patients. Improving healthcare is one of Government’s key priorities. We welcome CIPLAs expansion and new investment in the value chain of the pharmaceutical sector and look to further investments.
According to the FDI markets, a total of 82 Indian projects in South Africa with a total capital expenditure of R62 billion between January 2003 and January 2016 were recorded from 60 companies. India’s leading sectors were software & IT services (17 projects) and financial services (14 projects).India’s investment in South Africa has created 10 660 jobs.
South African companies have also grown their investments in India with a total of 24 projects. The leading sectors for South Africa’s investment in India were financial sector, machinery and equipment and software and IT services. South Africa investment in India has created 6 981 jobs.
Enquiries:
Sidwell Medupe
Tel: 012 394 1650
Cell: 079 492 1774
E-mail: MSMedupe@thedti.gov.za
