Huge potential for trade between India, southern Africa countries: Prabhu

India is ready and willing to assist in development in southern African countries, Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu said at the India-South Africa Business Summit 2018, noting that the region holds huge potential for trade.

Prabhu was leading a high level business delegation to Johannesburg to participate in the two-day summit from April 29-30.

"We feel that there is a huge potential that exists between these two regions," Prabhu said as he shared the platform with his counterparts form Botswana, Swaziland, Lesotho and Mozambique at the summit.

Prabhu said there had been a meeting in New Delhi just a month earlier to explore what could be done in each of these countries.

"It was quite an eye-opener for us, because we realised that some of these countries have so much capability which we were not aware of, so we can actually use that and bring it into India as well.

The minister said "we are preparing for each and every country what it is that we can do together."
"Often the ideas don't work because of the very high ambitions that we start with, feeling that everything should be done immediately. That is not possible, even for India, which is a country much larger (than its African partners)."