India-South Africa trade may get major boost during BRICS summit

India-South Africa bilateral trade, currently worth around $12.5 billion annually, is expected to gain momentum during the BRICS summit, South African High Commissioner Anil Sooklal said. He highlighted growing business interest, technology cooperation and efforts towards a preferential trade agreement

New Delhi: The bilateral trade between India and South Africa, which is currently worth around $12.5 billion annually, is poised to get a major boost during the BRICS summit, South Africa’s High Commissioner to India, Prof. Anil Sooklal, said on Monday.

“We are seeing increasing interest from South African businesses in entering the Indian market. We have a very large trade delegation, perhaps the largest ever from South Africa to India, with more than 120 South African businesses accompanying President (Cyril) Ramaphosa for the BRICS Summit,” the High Commissioner told IANS in an exclusive interview.

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He pointed out that while these businesses will participate in the BRICS Business Forum, there will also be three side events focused specifically on India-South Africa trade. This demonstrates that the appetite among South African businesses for the Indian market is growing rapidly, he said.

“I believe this is a very positive sign and will help accelerate trade relations between our two countries,” he remarked.

Prof Sooklal highlighted that South Africa is India’s largest trading partner on the African continent, while globally, India ranks fourth among South Africa’s trading partners.

“However, I firmly believe that there is vast potential to grow our trade, and we are seeing an accelerated pace of growth. This is partly due to India’s more focused approach towards the African continent and South Africa’s increasing focus on trading partners in the Global South. Given the unilateral trade measures that have been imposed on us, there is a growing need to look more closely at intensifying trade relations among countries of the Global South,” he said.

The High Commissioner further stated that there is also tremendous interest from a large number of Indian companies that want to enter the African market using South Africa as a base. All of the major Indian multinationals are present in South Africa and are doing very well, he noted.

He said that Indian businesses were not only using South Africa as a base to strengthen bilateral trade but also to penetrate the wider Southern African region. South Africa has strong infrastructure as well as some of the strongest banking and financial services on the continent.

The High Commissioner also said that with the fast-tracking of negotiations for a Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) between India and the Southern African Customs Union, of which South Africa is a member, the trade between the two sides would pick up further momentum.

“This will be the first such agreement between India and a regional bloc on the African continent. Once this PTA is in place, I believe it will provide a further boost to trade and investment between our two countries,” he observed.

He also highlighted that there was a need for closer cooperation in technology and that BRICS needs to mainstream cooperation in artificial intelligence.

“India has been a leader in this area, particularly in establishing data centres and global capability centres. We would like to see greater cooperation in this field and would like AI cooperation to become more deeply embedded in the BRICS agenda,” Prof Sooklal said.