Monday, August 29, 2011


India South Africa CEO Forum to meet Tomorrow Push likely for Bilateral Investments

The Union Minister of commerce Industry and Textiles, Shri Anand Sharma and his South African counterpart, Mr Rob Davies will interact with the CEOs of the two countries at the second meeting of India South Africa CEOs Forum. The Forum is headed by Shri Ratan Tata from Indian side and Mr Patrice Motsepe from South Africa. “Given that both our economies are placed in similar positions in the global economic order, and also the fact that both our governments are faced with similar socio-economic imperatives, it would be most appropriate for our governments and industry to step up the bilateral cooperation, intensify knowledge sharing and jointly address developmental issues” said Shri Anand Sharma on the eve of the meeting. The two ministers will also meet to have bilateral discussions.

First meeting of the Forum took place in Johannesburg in August 2010. In the first meeting, the business leaders of both the countries discussed in detail the opportunities and challenges that bilateral investment & trade offered and the bottlenecks that were hampering India-South Africa business ties. During the first meeting, the members agreed to form sectoral groups in key areas of energy, financial services, mining, pharmaceutical and infrastructure with chief executives of leading companies from the respective sectors as members from both the sides. The Forum also agreed to jointly explore business opportunities in Africa in diverse fields such as pharmaceuticals, healthcare, food processing, automobiles, components, biotechnology, information technology, telecommunications, infrastructure, roads and railways.

In the year 2010-11, provisional figures show 37.64% increase in the bilateral trade which stood at US$ 10,643.52 million with export of US$ 4,161.51 million and imports of US$ 6,482.01 million. Investments from and into South Africa has also seen substantial rise. Indian High Commission figures put the cumulative value of Indian investment in South Africa at US$ 6.7 billion. Major Investors are Tata Group (hotels and resorts, steel, telecommunications, automobiles and mining), Ranbaxy , Apollo , Vedanta Resources Plc, JSW(Jindal Group), Godrej, Mahindra & Mahindra, Essar, Dabur, Emami, the UB Group, Suzlon, Videocon, Kirloskars and pharmaceutical majors including Dr. Reddy’s Lab and CIPLA. India South Africa Bilateral Investment Promotion & Protection Agreement (BIPPA) negotiations are underway.

From Indian side apart from Mr. Ratan Tata, Chairman, Tata Sons who is co-chair, Mr. Sanjay C Kirloskar, Chairman, Kirloskar Brothers Limited, Mr. Rajendra S Pawar, Chairman, NIIT Ltd, Mr Satish Reddy, Managing Director, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, Mr. Amit Burman, Vice Chairman, Dabur India Ltd, Mr. Onkar S Kanwar, Chairman, Apollo Tyres Ltd, Mr. Syamal Gupta, Advisor, Tata International Limited, Mr. M. D. Mallya, Chairman & Managing Director, Bank of Baroda, Mr. TCA Raganathan, Chairman & Managing Director, Export Import Bank of India, Mr. Harsh C Mariwala, Chairman & Managing Director, Marico Ltd, Mr. Rana Som, Chairman-cum-Managing Director, NMDC Ltd, Mr. Arun Sawhney, Managing Director, Ranbaxy, Mr. Naresh Goel, Chairman, Jet Airways, Dr. Y. K. Hamied, Chairman-cum-Managing Director, CIPLA Limited, Mr. R. Seshasayee, Managing Director, Ashok Leyland, Mr. Vikramjit Singh Sahney, Corporate President, Sun Group, Mr Anand G. Mahindra, Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd and Mr. Deepak Premnarayen, Managing Director, ICS Group & Non Executive Director, First Rand Ltd.(South Africa) are the members of the CEO Forum.

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