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Sharma leads Indian team to ANC centenary celebrations in South Africa
New Delhi, January 8, 2012
Commerce & Industry Minister Anand Sharma handing over messages from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi to South African President Jacob Zuma at the ANC Centenary in Bloemfontein, South Africa on January 8, 2012.
Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma, who is leading the Indian delegation to the centenary celebrations of the African National Congress (ANC) in Mangaung, Bloemfontein, called on South African President and ANC chief Jacob Zuma today.
Sharma handed over messages of felicitations on the occasion from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi.
Zuma thanked Sharma for the messages and stated that the ANC and the Indian National Congress (INC) shared historic and fraternal links forged over many years of struggle for freedom and justice.
Sharma stressed the continuing importance India attached to its bilateral relationship with South Africa and noted that the close party to party relations between the ANC and INC were a special facet of the overall bilateral relationship between the two countries.
Sharma also held a bilateral meeting with his South African counterpart, Minister of Trade and Industry Rob Davies, in Bloemfontein today.
Both ministers reviewed bilateral commercial and economic relations and expressed satisfaction at the continued growth in bilateral investment flows and trade.
They welcomed the fact that bilateral trade had already crossed the target set in 2010 of $ 10 billion by the year 2012 during the last financial year itself.
The two ministers reiterated the need to maintain this momentum and agreed to continue visits by bilateral commercial delegations and to take other necessary measures to facilitate trade and investment.
In this context, efforts to reach an early conclusion of the India-SACU Preferential Trade Agreement and the Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (BIPPA) are to be pursued with greater vigour.
Sharma is accompanied on the visit by Rajni Patil, senior Congress leader and former Chairperson of the Central Social Welfare Board as well as officials from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry during his visit to South Africa.
NNN
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