Our relationship with India dates back to when Indians came to South Africa as indentured labourers to work in the sugar plantations.
Today, South Africa has the highest population of Indians outside of India. Many Indians played a leading role in the struggle for liberation and are part of our continuing struggle for economic development. They are an integral part of the South African mosaic.
The legacy of Mahatma Gandhi, who once graced our shores, remains an extremely powerful one that has touched the lives of millions throughout Africa, Asia and beyond. This year we celebrate 100 years of Gandhi’s Satyagraha, and we are honoured that Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited South Africa this past week to mark this historic contribution to peace and liberation.
South Africa and India, through their own liberation struggles, gave the world an alternative to war and violence. People such as Albert Luthuli, Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, Lillian Ngoyi, Amina Cachalia and Helen Joseph are examples of South Africans who practised the concept of Satyagraha, and they leave us an unforgettable history to celebrate and to emulate.
We need to continue the legacy that our Gandhi left us by giving Satyagraha a contemporary meaning. Gandhi warned all of us against seven blunders: wealth without work; pleasure without conscience; knowledge without character; business without morality; science without humanity; worship without sacrifice; and politics without principle.
India and South Africa continue to learn from each other, and the India-South Africa CEOs’ Forum is proof of that. Our countries must focus on building strong economic links.
A huge task lies ahead if we are to meet the challenge proposed by Indian President APJ Abdul Kalam, that trade between South Africa and India should increase five-fold by 2010. In practical terms, this means an increase in trade between our countries from $2,4-billion last year to $12-billion in 2010. To achieve this there needs to be a significant commitment to upscale business relations.
South Africa and India today have so much to build, and they can build together. President Abdul Kalam’s $12-billion challenge is achievable. Opportunities for closer cooperation in a number of sectors have been identified. These include financial services, capital equipment (construction and related infrastructure), agro-processed products, and the auto sector.
We have already begun creating the conditions for trade and investments to thrive — and this includes the issue of access to our country by people from India. In the past six months 40 000 Indians entered South Africa for work or for pleasure. The duration of the intra-company transfer permits has been extended from two to four years. We are increasing personnel in Mumbai to help process visas. We have issued more than 2 600 visas and work permits a month since June 2006. Business people can apply for a business permit, instead of visitor or work permits, to facilitate their stay here. We have good relations with India’s anti-fraud unit and they have played a great role in terms of verifying of documents.
Because we share the Indian Ocean, there is a lot more that we can do as countries in the Indian Ocean rim. The linkages are strategic but need to be improved.
In October, South African Airways will increase its flight frequency between Johannesburg and Mumbai from four to five flights a week.
South Africa needs skills, while India has skills in abundance, along with excellent and affordable training capabilities. We acknowledge with appreciation that a number of Indian companies and organisations are helping to train South Africans in various fields.
We urge cooperation on skills transfer and for the CEOs’ Forum to be a partner and bring to South Africa these models that have worked successfully in India. One of the challenges that faces the forum remains that of ensuring that both countries appoint women CEOs in their companies.
South African companies must make a significant effort to address binding constraints to growth and their own profitability, including the question of human resources. Through the joint initiative for priority skills acquisition, mass placement of matriculants and unemployed graduates is meant to primarily happen in South Africa. However, those placed in India for ”training of the trainers” will be identified as excellent candidates for being mentors, academic trainers and tertiary educators.
South African companies should offer Indian candidates the same opportunities to learn here in South Africa in those areas where we have advantages and where we can draw young Indians with skills we need. There is a global skills crisis and South Africa has to wake up to this reality. Industries have to do much more to secure their financial future.
Perhaps the greatest lesson for South African companies to learn from India is a commitment to their people that goes beyond business as usual.
Both India and South Africa have entered the 21st century with extreme wealth and extreme poverty. We need to harness our development efforts. For example, we can and must collaborate on universal access to information and communications technology to tackle underdevelopment. We regard India as a crucial player in the development of small, medium and micro enterprises. There is great possibility for us to increase our experts of manufactured goods and for Indians to also harvest our knowledge in mining, power generation and cellphone technology.
For India and South Africa, local content remains important, as does South-South trade and investment. The Proudly South African campaign can perhaps also learn from Gandhi’s powerful example of promoting local content in the Indian economy, of encouraging the use of handmade fabrics instead of imported cloth.
The biggest lesson for us to learn from India is that good corporate citizenship goes well beyond the bottom line and the interests of shareholders, and extends to looking after the interests of the people and the long-term development of the country.