Led by the Department of Trade and Industry, a South African delegation will visit India from July 14 to 19, 2019 and showcase their value-added products to Indian businesses in Mumbai and Delhi, two largest and commercially important cities in India. The 27-member delegation will consist of major corporations in South Africa representing agro processing, defense and electro-technical sectors. The delegation will try to hard sell South Africa in India to develop export markets for South African manufactured products and services. There will be focus also on attracting Indian investments into South Africa. Incidentally, India has emerged as a major investing country globally, particularly in the US and Europe. Of late, it has also started focusing Africa and some estimates put that India has emerged as the second largest investor in Africa in the recent days after China.
The delegation is sponsored by export marketing and investment assistance (EMIA) program of South Africa, which is the nodal agency for tappi9ng ecport markets and tapping inward investments.
India is the 12th largest importer and the 17th largest exporter in value, presenting significant trade opportunities for South African firms. Also, there is a good presence of people of Indian origin in South Africa. India’s total imports is valued at US$400 billion of goods and services. South Africa is wanting to leverage its excellent affinity with India to leverage its exports into the country and at the same time motivating Indian businesses to invest in South Africa. Currently, South Africa has over one hundred and fifty Indian companies operating in the country, which employ over 18,000 local people. Equally significant is South African investments in India, which is estimated to be over US$ 1 billion and include companies like Sanlam, Old Mutual and Life Healthcare and Naspers.
