Trade and Industry Minister of South Africa, Rob Davies says the country will use the up-and-coming state visits involving India and France to boost trade and investment, in a bid to boost exports to those markets.
The Minister also said Invest South Africa, a one-stop-shop that was set up to address investor bottlenecks and attract investment, will sign an agreement with the French business sector when President Jacob Zuma leads a high-level business delegation to France next week.
Minister Davies said this when he briefed journalists on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s state visit to South Africa on 8 July 2016, as well as South Africa’s state visit to France from 11 to 13 July 2016.
“As far as we are concerned, India is our very strategic trade and investment partner.
“At the moment, India is our sixth largest trade partner, so it is in fact higher than a number of other traditional trade partners.
“So from our point of view, we want to boost exports, more especially our value added exports,” he says.