Pretoria - President Jacob Zuma will tomorrow host the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, for talks during the official visit to South Africa.
The Presidency on Thursday said the two leaders will hold official talks at the Union Buildings and then later address a meeting of the South Africa-India Business Forum.
“Prime Minister Modi will also undertake engagements in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal as part of his visit.
“South Africa and India enjoy a strategic partnership and bilateral relations are anchored by a deep and shared history of friendship and solidarity,” said the Presidency.
India, which gained independence in 1947, was an active supporter of the international liberation struggle and also a staunch supporter of the fight for freedom and democracy in South Africa. India was at the forefront of efforts to isolate the apartheid government. Full diplomatic relations between South Africa and India were established on 22 November 1993.
Prime Minister Modi’s visit will be used to further bolster cooperation on economic, political, social and international areas.
“In particular, South Africa is keen to strengthen trade between the two countries. To date, India is South Africa's largest trade partner, with trade in 2015 being at almost R95 billion. Trade with India represented 4.9% of SA imports and 4.1% of exports last year.
“South Africa's trade statistics also show 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 [in 2015],” said the Presidency.
While the trade surplus is in favour of India, the Presidency said efforts are underway to promote South African exports, especially value added products.
President Zuma and Prime Minister Modi are scheduled to address a meeting of the joint South Africa-India Business Forum, which will be preceded by the meeting of the South Africa-India CEOs forum.
“In the period after South Africa attained freedom and democracy, India's investment into South Africa has been in numerous sectors such as in the mining industry, financial services, pharmaceutical sector and manufacturing.
“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 and IT services (17 projects) and financial services (14 projects). India's investment in South Africa has created an estimated 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 are the financial sector, machinery and equipment and software and IT services. South Africa investment in India has created an estimated 6 981 jobs,” said the Presidency.
A number of bilateral agreements and memoranda of understanding (MoUs) are currently under consideration, some of which will be concluded during the visit of the Prime Minister and while others will be finalised in the next few months.
The areas of cooperation covered by the instruments include information communication technology, tourism, sport, culture, grassroots innovation, renewable energy, audio-visual and visa simplification procedures.
South Africa and India are members of the strategic Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa economic bloc (BRICS).
On international cooperation, the Presidency said South Africa wants to see a meaningful reform of the global governance system to make the system more responsive to the needs of the developing world especially Africa and this matter will feature in the discussions.
“The visit will also serve to further strengthen the excellent people-to-people contact that exists between the two countries,” said the Presidency. - SAnews.gov.za
