Notes following Press Conference by Ambassador Jerry Matjila regarding 7th South Africa - India Joint Ministerial Commission (JMC), Imbizo Media Centre, 120 Plein Street, Cape Town, Thursday 21 February 2007

Remarks by Ambassador Matjila

This is a short brief on the visit of the Indian Minister of External Affairs Pranab Mukherjee to South Africa to co-chair the 7th session of the South Africa – India Joint Ministerial Commission (JMC).  Minister Mukherjee who arrived in South Africa yesterday Wednesday 20 February 2008 will lead his delegation to the JMC.

He will travel to Cape Town this morning Thursday 21 February 2008 to have discussions with Foreign Minister Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma.  He will then meet President Mbeki and Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.

This framework of the JMC is a tool through which the South African government conducts its overall relations with India.  These relations are very deep and broad and over the past 14 years, these relations have deepened.  They have been characterised by high profile visits by Heads of State and Government from both countries.

South Africa and India, in the last ten years have seen a steady increase in our bilateral trade.  I was the first Ambassador to South Africa in 1995 – the two way trade at that time was R200 million.  In 2007, bilateral trade relations crossed R18 billion.  Our trade relations are growing in leaps and bounds and I am sure that by 2010, our bilateral relations would have reached R20 billion.

I am sure you are aware of the Indian investments into South Africa especially in the automotive industry, steel and steel products and in mining. 

From South Africa, we are exporting to India, quite a lot in terms of, finished goods, transport and equipment.  We are investing in the Indian manufacturing sector.  The opening up of the Indian economy has given our financial services a chance to be involved.

As the Ministers discuss, the senior officials will sit in eight committees – political, security, defence subcommittees – and will discuss a whole range of issues.

We will also sit on the trade, economic and technical co-operation committee which is a vital subcommittee.

Part of our discussions with India revolve around the issue of the SACU-India Free Trade Agreement (FTA) that we will have to begin with India soon.  We regard this as a very important development. 

We are also discussing with India the forthcoming India – Africa Summit in April.  This is a very significant development so we need to discuss this.

We will also be discussing the IBSA Summit that will take place in India around October – November this year.

We will also discuss the finalisation of the naval exercises around the western coast of South Africa – India, Brazil, South Africa naval exercises around May this year.

We will also look at other major issues of interest – questions like tourism.  We also believe we need a new subcommittee to deal with immigration and population matters. 

We hope that at the end of this session three agreements will be signed: exemption of visas for diplomatic and official passport holders, science and technology co-operation – there are quite a number of joint research projects and similarities we think we can draw on from India in this area.  The last agreement will be co-operation and mutual assistance on customs matters.  Both India and South Africa are related trading partners in the South and there is therefore a need to continuously co-operate on customs and other areas.

We hope that we can also take forth the skills programmes provided by India.  We have 300 undergrad students in India in various technology, management expertise programmes involving different companies – TATA and other technological partners.

We have a lot of young people in India being exposed to management with the hope that the skills learnt will benefit the South African economy.  This is an area I believe the Foreign Minister will discuss with Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.

We will also review nuclear matters and where we jointly co-operate in terms of the UN system, nuclear co-operation between India and rest of the world and how far we can progress in this regard.

We will also look at the situations in South Asia – elections in Pakistan, the challenges in Sri Lanka and the implications thereof.

We will also look at the African continent – the Indian delegation will have to be briefed on the situation in Kenya, Zimbabwe and the Great Lakes region. 

So we hope that by Friday 22 February 2008 we will be off the opinion that our relations are poised for greater growth.

Questions and answers

Question Ambassador, could you give us a bit more information on the India – Africa Summit to be hosted by India in April 2008?

Answer It is something that I think, the African Union in particular, will pronounce upon.

South Africa has been invited as part of the founding members of NEPAD.

The Forum will consist of about 15 Africa countries – not like the China – Africa Forum (FOCAC) at which almost every African Head of State was represented.

The 15 Heads of State will be composed of the African Union Troika, the five chairs of the five regional organizations, the founding members of NEPAD.  This is a formula that was agreed to at the AU Summit in Ghana in 2007.

There will be a determination of the Chair of the AU Commission following the Forum of whether this forum will continue and if so, at what frequency.

Issued by Department of Foreign Affairs
Private Bag X152
Pretoria
0001

19 February 2008