The best place for Indian business to use as a gateway to the burgeoning opportunities in all sectors in the African continent is South Africa, according to Gauteng province Premier David Makhura.
"You need to be part of the Africa growth story," Makhura told a gathering of more than 50 representatives of Indian companies in South Africa at an interaction organised by the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) here.
Gauteng province is the economic hub of South Africa, with almost all of the 150 Indian companies represented in South Africa having a presence in the province.
"The best place to locate if you want to take advantage of Africa's future growth plans is to locate in South Africa, and particularly in Gauteng because of the good infrastructure we have," he said.
"Africa provides a formidable market that simply cannot be overlooked. And I would like to invite Indian businesses to not only locate in our province but to locate here (in Gauteng) in order to do business with Africa," he added.
Echoing his view, Indian High Commissioner Ruchi Ghanashyam said Gauteng and Johannesburg in particular offer the best of infrastructure and legal support systems and services.
Ghanashyam said Indian companies prided themselves in having implemented in South Africa their principle of collaboration and creating opportunities for all.
"They have created thousands of direct and indirect jobs in South Africa," she said, as she singled out the Indian IT companies who have undertaken a number of training and capacity building programmes for young South Africans.
Abdullah Verachia of GIBS, who regularly leads MBA students to India to learn business principles there, said that traditional corporate interests of family businesses were being displaced as trade and investment between emerging markets grows.
"The new wave of Indian investment into Africa is coming from its aspirant multinationals. Indian firms are now becoming household brand names in developing markets in Africa," Verachia said.
