allAfrica.com 9 March 2007

President Thabo Mbeki has urged more interaction between the G8 group of highly industrialised nations and the G5 grouping of the world’s leading emerging economies.

Speaking on Thursday as he received letters of credence from Heads of Mission newly assigned to South Africa, the president said increased interaction was desirable as these players moved towards a more structured relationship.

The interaction between the G8 plus 5 should be continued in between the annual G8 meetings, President Mbeki told the incoming Indian High Commissioner, Rajiv Kumar Bhatia.

India’s High Commissioner-designate was among five new Heads of Mission who presented their letters of credence to the president at the Cape Town presidential offices of Tuynhuys.

The G8 countries - Britain, Germany, Japan, Russia, the United States, Italy, France, and Canada - have over the past few years been interacting more closely with what are often called the “advanced developing countries” of South Africa, India, China, Mexico and Brazil.

These developing nations now have some representation at the G8’s annual meetings as outreach partners.

President Mbeki said he believed the two groupings were evolving towards a structured acceptance of this relationship, as the G8 found it could no longer operate as effectively without more regular input from these five key emerging economies.

Mr Bhatia, for his part, said 35 bilateral agreements have been concluded between the two countries since the dawn of democracy in South Africa in 1994.

Trade between India and South Africa doubled between 2003 and 2006, said Mr Bhatia.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, visited South Africa last year as both countries celebrated the 100th anniversary of Satyagraha - Mahatma Ghandi’s movement of passive resistance to oppression.

Mr Singh said at the time that ambitions were for trade between the two countries to treble by 2010.

India’s economy is currently growing by an average of almost nine percent, while South Africa’s economy is not too far behind at GDP growth of an average of five per cent, with ambitions to lift this to over six per cent by 2014.

President Mbeki said that South Africa was currently looking for assistance from India - which is now recognised worldwide a being a leader in information and communications technology (ICT) - in the design and teaching of an ICT syllabus for South Africa.

Referring to this, a relaxed-looking President Mbeki jokingly remarked to Mr Bhatia that “each time we run into problems here we go to Delhi” .

President Mbeki also received letters of credence from Noellie Alexander, the High Commissioner-designate from South Africa’s India Ocean neighbour, the Republic of Seychelles, as well as from Edward Rudolf Braafheid of the Republic of Suriname.

The Sultanate of Oman’s ambassador-designate, Khalid Bin Suleiman Bin Abdulrahman Ba’Omar, also presented his letter of credence to the president as the sultanate’s first ambassador to South Africa, followed by the ambassador-designate of the Kingdom of Denmark, Dan Frederiksen.

BuaNews (Tshwane)
March 9, 2007