SA-India trade booms

India and South Africa have set the ambitious bilateral trade target of $15-billion (about R103-million) to be achieved within three years, India's high commissioner in South Africa, Virendra Gupta, said yesterday.

Gupta said foreign direct investment between SA and India had also grown "significantly" in recent years.

Gupta said the two emerging market powerhouses had surpassed the $10-billion bilateral trade target set last year, a figure made more significant because their bilateral trade agreement was non-existent 16 years ago.

This target was set by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Jacob Zuma during Zuma's visit to India last June.

Speaking on the sidelines of the launch of a revamped website promoting relations between India and South Africa, Gupta said that the 2010 trade target had been set during the global recession, which significantly reduced trade volumes between the two countries.

Gupta said the two countries had experienced a relatively quick economic rebound with healthy growth, which was boosting trade flows.

India's economic growth was back at its pre-crisis rate of 9% on average.

"India is South Africa's sixth-largest trading partner worldwide and South Africa is among India's largest trading partners in the developing world," Gupta said.

India's largest import from SA was coal, which amounted to about $1.5-billion. SA imported mostly IT services and pharmaceutical goods from India.

Gupta said foreign direct investment projects to the value of about $10-billion in a variety of sectors such as cement, finance, hotels, automotive manufacturing, pharmaceutical, renewable energy and consumer goods would be coming to South Africa from India.

New investment opportunities would also emerge as services like banking and insurance were increasingly needed. - I-Net Bridge/BusinessLIVE