India, S.Africa to boost MSME cooperation

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SME Times News Bureau | 22 Sep, 2011
India and South Africa have agreed to strengthen bilateral cooperation in the field of micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) sector, a Commerce Ministry official statement said today.

In a bilateral meeting between Minister of state Commerce and Industries Jyotiraditya M Scindia and South Africa's Deputy Minister for Trade & Industry Ms. Elizabeth Thabethe, both the countries have agreed to strengthen strengthen bilateral cooperation in the MSME sector.

"The MSME sector accounts for a large share of industrial output, employment and exports in both countries. There are immense opportunities of cooperation and strategic alliances in MSME sector, which could be in the form of joint ventures, technology collaborations or marketing tie-ups," Scindia said after addressing the press after the meeting.

He is on a one day visit to South Africa heading a CII business delegation to South Africa.

The minister expressed hope that the India-SACU Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) will be concluded soon, which will give a considerable boost to our exports in the Southern African region.

South Africa is India’s 2nd largest trading partner in Africa. There is, however, ample scope of diversifying the existing trade basket by bringing in many more manufactured goods.

The total trade between the two countries in the FY 2010-11 was US$ 10.6 billion, higher than bilateral trade target of US $ 10 billion by the year 2012, set during the visit of South African President Jacob Zuma to India in June, 2010. Later in January, a revised bilateral trade target of US $ 15 billion has been set for the year 2014.

Addressing the business conference, at Johannesburg, Scindia said "Our economies are placed in similar positions in the global economic order, and both our governments are faced with similar socio-economic imperatives. It is imperative for us to step up the bilateral cooperation, intensify knowledge sharing and jointly address developmental issues, leading to inclusive growth in our respective economies.

Speaking about the potential areas of cooperation he mentioned that there are tremendous prospects for South African diamond mining companies to enter into long term contracts with the Indian diamond companies/rough purchasers like DIL, MMTC etc. and there exists tremendous scope for co-operation and JVs between Public Sector undertakings of the two countries in the coal sector.

There is active contact between India and South Africa in multilateral fora, particularly at the NAM, Commonwealth, G-77, G-20, NAASP and WTO. Both countries are part of the IBSA trilateral initiative.

Both countries are currently non-permanent members of the UN Security Council (2011-2012). SA rendered pro-active support in the NSG decision to enable full civil nuclear cooperation with India. SA recently participated in the BRICS summit held in China in April, 2011.