The Minister of Commerce Industry and Textiles Anand Sharma expressed confidence that India and South Africa will achieve the target of trade to $15 billion by 2014 before the deadline.

"We are satisfied on the growth of trade and investment relations between the two countries. We are hopeful to achieve the target of $15 billion in the year 2014" said Sharma while interacting with the India South Africa CEO Forum along with his South African counterpart Rob Davies in New Delhi on Monday.

The meeting was attended by more than 35 South African and Indian CEOs and discussed the issues impacting bilateral trade and urged the governments to liberalize norms and reduce duties.

The CEOs of the two countries led by its two Chairmen, Ratan Tata, Chairman, Tata Sons and Patrice Motsepe, Executive Chairman, African Rainbow Minerals met for the second meeting of the India-South Africa CEOs Forum. The first forum meeting took place in Johannesburg in August 2010.

Taking forward the agenda of the first meeting, the sectoral groups led by their respective Chairmen discussed at length issues like tariff barriers, visa constraints, early finalization of PTA, technology transfer that if addressed in the right manner would help in promoting bilateral trade and investments.

During last fiscal, India-South Africa bilateral trade increased by 38 percent to $10,643.52 million, which included export of $4,161.51 million and imports of $6,482.01 million.

Meanwhile, business executives of India and South Africa urged the governments of the two countries to remove trade barriers to help boost the bilateral trade to $15 billion by 2014.

During the first India-South Africa CEO Forum, the members had agreed to form 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.

RTTNews