South Africa targets trebling trade with India by 2010
New Delhi: South Africa is targeting to treble two-way trade with India to $12 billion by 2010, said deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.

India's exports to South Africa grew by 58 percent to $1.55 billion in the fiscal year to March 2006, while imports were up by 11.44 percent to $2.45 billion, according to government data. The two-way trade between the two countries amounted to $4 billion during 2005/06.

India is negotiating a preferential trade agreement with member nations of the South African Customs Union (SACU) -- a regional trade block comprising of South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland.

Mlambo-Ngcuka urged Indian firms to forge joint ventures with South African firms, especially in the infrastructure sector and also in food processing, IT, hospitality and textiles. She said South Africa would require $55 billion investments in infrastructure in the next 3-to-5 years outlining South Africa's plans to boost economic growth to 6 percent annually from 2010 onwards from the present target of 4.5 percent.

India exports farm, dairy products, chemicals, medicines, textiles, electronic goods and vehicle parts to South Africa and imports mainly pearls, precious stones, iron and steel.
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IT sector exports likely to surge: STPI Director
Hyderabad: The continued buoyancy in the technology sector will result in significant spurt in exports during the first five months this fiscal said B.V. Naidu, in-charge of Bangalore and Hyderabad operations of the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI).

Even as the South continues to attract new players, several of the existing companies are scaling up operations. Naidu said the first half of the year witnessed close to 40,000 additional jobs in Bangalore, which is set to hit the four-lakh mark in total human resources.

Many large companies like UBS, Thompson Financials, Wells Fargo and Honeywell, have begun operations in Hyderabad, and it is clear that the city is moving up higher in the value chain both in terms of scale of operations and also range of services, he said.

In Hyderabad the IT exports are poised to touch the Rs18,000-crore mark (about $ 4 billion), up from Rs 12,500 crore last year, while Bangalore would witness a growth of about 30 per cent from total exports of about Rs 37,500 crore.

IBM, Accenture, Cap Gemini are looking to expand rapidly in Bangalore.

Naidu said Chennai and Hyderabad are two cities that can compliment each other in the areas of electronic manufacturing services sector and Hyderabad with Component Cluster, be it in the form of integrated circuits (ICs), or manufacture of semiconductors.
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Short-term external debt up $1 billion
New Delhi: India's short-term external debt has increased by over $1 billion year-on-year to $8.7 billion till March 2006 to surpass the 1991 high of $8.5 billion, mainly due to a surge in oil import bills.

Short term debt was at $8,544 million in 1991, came down to $2,745 million in 2002, and again rose to $8,788 million in 2006 from $7,524 million in 2005.

Short-term debt is considered to be a part of volatile capital flows and accumulation of large size of such debt exposes the economy to external shocks as was witnessed in the South East Asia crisis in 1997.

Generally no rollover of short-term credits beyond six months is allowed and the RBI monitors the stock of short-term debt on an on-going basis.

India's external debt stood higher at $125.2 billion in March, 2006 from $123.2 billion a year ago. The ratio of short-term debt to GDP has come down to 1.1 per cent in 2006 from 3 per cent in 1991.
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