The Indian High Commissioner to South Africa, Satyabrata Pal, said on Thursday that a wake-up call was needed on economic relations between South Africa and India.
Pal listed numerous areas of substantial growth in India where South African companies could come to the party, but were not doing so, and asserted that India was in a concerted drive to increase exports to South Africa to 5% and imports to 1%. He said the year-on-year leap in trade of 75% could even be surpassed and that trade with South Africa had the potential to expand to $10-billion by 2010 from $2-billion at the moment.
“India was instrumental in the isolation of South Africa but prior to that we had high trade numbers at 5% for exports and 1% for imports. And now 12 years after those sanctions we should be able to get back to that depth and range,” said Pal.
He added that while political relations were very warm, he would have thought economic relations would have been much better than they were.
“We haven’t yet translated it into the depth that I would have expected. This needs to change and is changing,” said Pal.
He noted that plenty of promotional activities were planned for the next few months and this showed the importance South Africa now occupied on India’s business agenda.
He said India and Brazil would be partner countries at SA’s biggest trade fair, Saitex, in October and added that a big Indian delegation would be there.
Other areas India was focusing on were the upcoming science exhibition in September and an aerospace exhibition in September.
Most exciting of all was that the Indian Prime Minister was likely to visit South Africa in a couple of months for the CEO’s forum, where further facilitation of SA-India relations would take place, said Pal.
He stated that India would also be bringing its successful “India Everywhere” campaign to South Africa next, and expected this to take place later in 2006 or early next year.
“South Africa is very much at the centre of our radar screen — and this is not coming a moment too soon. It should have happened earlier but I’m glad it’s happening now,” said Pal.
He added that trade with South Africa was at R14,5-billion last year, or $2,5-billion, a mammoth leap of 75% from the year before and he said that the challenge was now to maintain and increase the pace of growth.
“This is possible looking at the range of goods,” he noted.
He said that when India reviewed its recent trade with countries like Russia and South Africa at around $2-billion, they determined it was not enough and would look to expand it to $10-billion by 2010.
He noted that as India grew to 10% growth from 9% currently, huge opportunities beckoned for companies.
He said he saw opportunities in infrastructure growth, where $200-billion in growth was envisaged. This involved, among others, road projects worth between $50-billion and $60-billion, projects at ports worth $18-billion and airport projects worth $15-billion.
“There are obvious benefits to being involved in the second-fastest growing economy in the world,” said Pal.
He added that South African should seriously consider having a presence based on all the opportunities.
“Three years back we had 30 Fortune 500 companies in India and two years ago we had 200. In the next few years the assumption is that all the Fortune 500 companies will have a presence in India,” said Pal. – I-Net Bridge