The global economic landscape is poised for a significant shift, with India on the cusp of overtaking Japan to become the fourth-largest economy by the end of this year. This development cements India’s status as the fastest-growing major economy in the world, signaling potential for expanded trade relations—a prospect particularly promising for South Africa, which ranks as India’s fourth-largest trading partner.
Only six months into his tenure as High Commissioner of the Republic of South Africa in India, Professor Anil Sooklal has already witnessed the strong relations that exist between South Africa and India.
Sooklal said India, the fastest-growing major economy in the world today, is on the verge of becoming the fourth-largest global economy. Currently, it is fifth and it is predicted that by the end of the year, it will overtake Japan.
He said South Africa is its fourth-largest trading partner.
“So we have very strong relations with India,” Sooklal said.
He said the name of former President Nelson Mandela is highly respected even today.
“Wherever you go and you mention South Africa, the first thing that comes up is President Mandela. They still revere him and hold him in high regard. So I think President Mandela continues to be a major factor in positive impressions that they have about South Africa,” Sooklal said.
“So India is very positively disposed to South Africa and they’re very keen to strengthen their relationship.”
Sooklal described the business sector as vibrant, with about 150 Indian companies in South Africa, keen to expand relations, business relations and investments.
“Increasingly, what is encouraging in the past six months, I’ve had several South African businesses, especially from the SMME (small, medium and micro enterprises) sector and our black businesses, visiting India and wanting to explore business opportunities here,” Sooklal said.
He said South African businesses are becoming increasingly aware of the substantial opportunities available to them in India.
“We just had a very large delegation led by the Chief of Staff of the Minister of Electricity, Dr (Kgosientsho) Ramokgopa, including people from Eskom and all the entities of our energy sector. There were about 25 of them. They spent the whole of last week in Delhi to meet with their counterpart departments, the Ministry of Power, and to look at how India has dealt with independent power producers (IPP) and to see if we can draw lessons as we roll out our IPP back home,” Sooklal said.
He said earlier this year, about 25 delegations from about seven or eight departments came and looked at how India has used digital public infrastructure to empower, especially its rural communities, and bring new technologies to lift people out of poverty and underdevelopment.
“So we had a large delegation here to come and look at the digital public infrastructure, which our President (Cyril Ramaphosa) also referred to in his State of the Nation Address earlier this year.
“India is seen as a model country that has done very well, and that’s why we had a delegation to come and look at how we can learn from them,” Sooklal said.
He said there is a steady stream of delegations from government, business, the private sector, and universities, constantly interacting with India.
“Our relations are very intense and continue to grow,” Sooklal added.