Bilateral trade between India and South Africa has the potential to surge from the current level of $15 billion to $50 billion in the next six to seven years, provided the Preferential Trade Agreement between the two was concluded at the earliest, according to Malose Mogale, Acting High Commissioner, South African High Commission.

“Negotiations between the two countries on the PTA were on and many of the bottlenecks have been ironed out,” he told mediapersons on the sidelines of a meeting organised by the Federation of AP Chamber of Commerce and Industry here today.

He was however not willing to give a time-frame for the signing of the PTA between India and South Africa, hoping that it was in place at the earliest.

Mogale said South Africa was investing hugely on infrastructure development, including Rand 205 billion on passenger and rail freight projects. He said Indian infrastructure companies could make use of this development.

“Europe will not recover now. The next frontier of economic development is in Africa and Asia,” he said, while allaying fears on safety of foreign investments in South Africa.

He said South Africa had 80 per cent of the global manganese reserves, 72 per cent of chrome reserves and 40 per cent of gold reserves.

“We are rich in raw materials and now we are seeking to go in for value addition through foreign investments,” he said.

> amitmitra@thehindu.co.in

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