South Africa hosts international ITI

Twenty-six South African export companies and many Indian importers across different industries joined the event.

South Africa's Deputy Minister of Trade & Industry Mzwandile Masina , South African High Commissioner in India (Delhi) France K. Morule, Minister Counsellor Economic at the South African High Commission Stefanus Botes and Acting Deputy Director General of Trade and Investment South Africa Yunus Hoosen were present at the media briefing session on the event at the same venue.

The programme included exhibitions, trade and investment seminars, business to business meetings and site visit where South Africa's expertise in various trade sectors of agro-processing, mining, food and beverages, renewable energy and pharmaceuticals, capital equipment, were showcased.

The ITI provided a platform to identify trade and investment opportunities and enabled discussions on augmenting joint ventures between the exporters of the two countries.

France K Morule said that South Africa was increasingly emerging in the world as an attractive trade and investment hub.

"We play a pivotal role in the reshaping of financial and trade architecture on an international platform, and hence look forward to interacting with our Indian counterparts to discuss the possibilities of mutual business partnerships," he said.

Deputy minister Mzwandile Masina said that the event helped to promote South Africa's strong commercial brands and to build trade partnerships and investment opportunities.

"The ITI event will strengthen our bilateral trade with India beyond just commodity trading," he added.

Mzwandile Masina said that South Africa was looking for foreign investment from India and a special economic zone (SEZ) was created in their country to attract investments.

"South Africa's FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) in India is 4 billion USD and India's FDI in our country is double, 8.6 billion USD, though it is not sufficient for India because there are many opportunities in South Africa to invest," he said.

According to Masina, South Africa is trying to build a good relationship with India.

Mzwandile Masina said that they were interested in India's prime minister Narendra Modi's project 'Make in India'.

"I went to Hyderabad before and the development in all sectors impressed me," he said.

South Africa's sixth international ITI seminar was held in Hyderabad earlier on Feb 24.

Mzwandile told IBNS that the delegation from South Africa failed to meet the chief minister of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee.

"We could not get WB chief minister's appointment because she is busy in state's financial budget. Next time we will definitely try to do it," he added.

(Reporting by Deepayan Sinha)