individual Indian businesses or business people and uh later the business forum BRICS business forum and now this morning having spent considerable amount of time talking to some of you who are here as well uh on a bilateral or or individual basis and now this business forum I mean this business roundt it is a real pleasure to have been exposed to Indian business people and to know and to get to understand their impressive and enormous capability uh in their various businesses. I'm in awe to having listened to many of you who are uh doing business and many of you have been doing business for years having either uh followed in the toes of your founders in some cases family businesses and have grown businesses that are now global that have also developed enormous capability in a number of sectors of uh business in the global economy. Uh I found this very very impressive indeed. But let me start off by particularly thanking you as Indian business for having an interest and investment in South Africa. Uh number of you are already invested in South Africa and we want want more. uh in a way uh in our internal briefing yesterday, [clears throat] we did comment that we have in number of ways as government neglected our relationship as South Africa with India. Uh but that weakness has actually been amilarated by the relationships that businesses have had uh with South Africa from India. A number of uh businesses from India have invested in South Africa and that we are eternally grateful for much as there been a bit of a uh weakness uh in terms of uh uh our real robust relationship at sort of diplomatic level but at business level that has been really good. So, this occasion uh is going to add great momentum as Vivian Ready was saying, it's the first time I see him in a three-piece suit. Uh so, he he really got fired up and I want to thank him for the initiative uh that he has taken. He always comes to various occasions uh you know that we have in South Africa just in a two-piece suit but today he really dressed up uh and um uh so thank you very much Vivian for uh having ensured that we we have this moment but I also want to applaud my fellow South African business people who are here yesterday I did say that we've got a representation of up to 120 business people representing a variety of businesses and I'd like to think that it could be about more than 100 companies maybe less but uh we've never had in our overseas visit so many people coming along when the president travels uh and so therefore I'm grateful but I'm also particularly pleased that they participate in bricks uh business council activities and let me immediately thank the confederation of Indian industry which I have had occasion to uh address on a number of occasions and uh and the relationship continues and uh is stronger. But I want to applaud South African black business people who are here. These are the new generation of business people from South Africa and I want to thank them for their tenacity uh and determination to run businesses and their presence here uh across the seas to come here just shows a great great determination uh to explode in the business scene. And these are business people who were prevented uh in the past from being in business. They couldn't own businesses or meaningful businesses and capital networks were completely uh removed from them and uh uh they they they only operated in small little businesses in uh townships or in areas where black people lived. And black business in South Africa in democratic South Africa now has uh shown that uh it it has a presence and they are that presence. It has had to do more than competing. It has had to break into already established an economic order which is controlled and owned by those who are privileged. And up under aparate, these black business people were who are here were systematically restricted where they could operate, what businesses they could own and it hamstrung them. So I applaud them today for running really meaningful businesses, for for being able to stretch their uh business prowess and to be able uh to run the businesses that they run. So my fellow South African business people, I thank you for being here. I really thank you. You are the jewel of uh economy in South Africa and we want to continue applauding you and we are meeting at a time when the global economy is undergoing a number of uh changes and transformations. Uh supply chains are being uh reconfigured and industrial policies are also being uh reshaped and uh influenced by a whole number of uh things like AI and uh climate change, energy transitions and so forth and digital technologies are reshaping industries and this is where India uh has really defined itself as an important player. So for us it's so good and important to be here because uh as we interface with you and as our business people interface with you, we are able to to learn quite a lot. Um and to thrive in this rapidly changing uh environment requires partnerships and I see our fellow business people from South Africa being here as people who require and want to have partnerships and India is powering ahead in more ways than one. But South Africa is also open for business. And the interest that Indian business people have shown in South Africa means that they can see a country that is open for business, a country that has enormous endowments in more ways than one. South Africa itself is transforming and Deputy Minister Gimpy has spoken to that. Uh and yes, he's right. We are leading a transformation uh and a reforming agenda to reposition our country uh in a number of ways. Uh we have emerged from more than a decade of electricity shortages into a new era of investment and competition and we are also attending to some of those areas that were holding us back. For instance, we are reviving our freight rail system. Our ports and some of the businesses that we met yesterday and today are so well-versed uh in infrastructure development in ports and in many many other areas. And it was really really a joy uh to and uplifting for us uh to be in the presence of uh such capable business uh people. uh and the reforms that we are leading now are focused on reducing the cost of doing business but also improving the environment of doing business uh in our economy and we have also embarked on the largest infrastructure investment program in our country's history. uh we've never really at government level uh taken a very clear and determined decision to invest up to 1 trillion rand and in South African terms a trillion rand is a lot of money and uh due to the measures we have taken the country's credit rating outlook has improved inflation has been on the downward trend and we are on the on the path of stabilizing our national debt Our investment drive continues to gather pace and that is why we are delighted that more than 150 uh Indian companies have collectively invested over 10 billion dollars in South Africa creating employment for up to 100 uh up to 18,000 people. UPPL came last year, no this year at our investment conference and made a really bold investment decision and we are grateful for that and at the same time a number of leading South African business companies or companies rather have uh invested in India's growth as well. So, it's been a wonderful two-way uh investment relationship with our companies investing in your market and uh and you investing in our market and these include companies such as Naspers. I see that my sister put Mahany is is here uh she leads Naspers in South Africa. Your first Rand is also here. Sunlam and Momentum and a number of other companies uh have decided to invest uh in your in your market. Today we have an opportunity to build on the relationship through a focus on investment, on trade, on exports, on innovation, industrial development and sustainable growth. And uh one of the companies we met this morning uh was telling us that they they have set up a similar uh entity like we have in Sasso and uh on extracting uh fuel and gas from coal. And even as I listened to them, I said, "No, this is great. They are copycatting what we are doing in Sassil because Sassol is the largest industrial chemical company in the world." And uh we we we we are grateful that we are partners partners not only in in word or name but we are partners in what we do. This forum then presents or this round table presents an opportunity for you all with an opportunity to participate in the policy dialogue uh into commercially viable projects and long-term partnerships. Now, this is a moment when we'd like to listen to you to hear what your thoughts are, what your suggestions are. uh one of the businesses that we met just a few minutes ago came with a whole sort of uh template of what they believe uh we need to assist them in and they had a whole range about incentives and tariffs and all that but they also said no we want a vet exemption VAT exempt and I said now you're stretching it because if we give you a VAT exemption what do I say to a grandmother somewhere in the village who bows and buys something food or whatever though we've exempted some of those and then we give you an exemption and she pays back so it's not fair but we did say we want to address some of the many things that uh business people will raise with us. Now the first of these areas where we can work together is in energy transition and the green industrialization where we need collaboration. Uh India and South Africa are both navigating ambitious energy transitions and a number of the companies that we met here are in energy in one way or another. uh opportunities exists in renewable energy technologies and green hydrogen and uh we are pleased that we were able to exchange some views and companies like Venta have already establish a footprint in our country. We believe that other large companies can anchor their investments in South Africa and use it as a base to export into Africa and the rest of the world. And a number of your companies in talking to us said that we see South Africa as a gateway into the African continent because of the advantages that South Africa has. The second area is in mining and critical minerals and beneficiation. I will not gain say this because we we have as South Africa been leading the conversation about the beneficiation of uh what we extract from the ground in South Africa particularly critical minerals. The second area or the third area is the collaboration in infrastructure and connectivity and we want to encourage deeper collaboration uh in this in this area as well and there are many areas where we need to collaborate and in agriculture uh India leads in empowering small-cale farmers uh when black people were removed from their land. And when they were dispossessed of land, the land was given to white people in South Africa who then went on to establish large farming operations and black people were just relegated to the much more arid areas and very small areas and that great capability of farming the land has really scaled down. We now need to revive it. need to revive it and the government is involved in in parceling out land to many of our people. Land is still a major major uh fault line in South Africa. uh something that we are addressing at the moment and therefore India offers great assistance and a few of you are saying that you're involved in agriculture and the empowerment of uh smallcale farmers. So we want to learn from you because agriculture is fundamental to economic development and social stability. There is great opportunity for collaboration in agriculture in agroprocessing and agricultural technology as well as food innovation. Now this would contribute to stronger supply chains improved productivity and greater food security. And of course the fifth area which is also very important in which India leads is in the digital economy and innovation. Now the rapid growth of the digital economy presents exciting opportunities and another key area is uh the cooperation that we wish to highlight is a human capital and institutional re part partnerships. We would like to strengthen partnership between universities, research institutions and skill development organizations and businesses. and you have developed greatly in this area now because in our view this will support innovation and knowledge sharing. The other area where you have really really developed and you prime minister was also talking about that was in promoting startups. uh I think you are the poster country in the world for supporting startups and I heard that you know 200,000 startups have been supported and a number of them uh have become unicorns and we want to learn a lot more about how you've gone about doing so. uh one of your ministers was relating to me the various uh intricate processes that you have uh been involved in but this is where the private sector has also played a key role in uh under uh pinning and supporting the work that government has initiated. We need to see that repeated in South Africa where the private sector in large measure will also come in and support startups. Our government is doing quite a great deal but I do believe that India has done much more. So we'd like to partner with you and we glad that we've got so many South African business people who are here. We would like to strengthen partnerships uh with uh Indian businesses and various other institutions that uh we have uh come across here and this round table then gives us an opportunity uh to to deepen understanding and also to hear what some of your issues are. Yesterday when I went to the bricks business forum, I had a little bit of a of um a cold uh which I usually develop uh with too much air conditioning. So I my sense of smell was a little bit reduced. But this morning I woke up a lot better. And as I entered this room, because my sense of smell has improved greatly, I could smell money. [laughter] So meeting with you here, I have a greater sense that I'm in the presence of people with money. So I I want you to come and invest in South Africa. Thank you very much. And uh Mr. President, I I I trust your sense of smell much much better than mine. So when you smell money, I always know for a fact that there must be money in the room. But but on behalf of of all the participants in here, Mr. President, I I really want to convey our collective word of thank you for for affording us your time to sit with us through this session and just also for the the the amount of time you spend um talking to Indian business people between yesterday and today. It's it's been a a great pleasure to witness and also to be a part of and in that sense it gives a very concrete uh impression that you are engineering greater economic cooperation between South Africa and India not just at a government level but by encouraging a businessto government conversation and a businessto business conversation. Now Mr. President, I'm always comfortable with you because you know that if a meeting said and there are no photos to prove that the meeting said, that meeting did not sit. So, I'm going to ask your indulgence for a family photo. Um, and I would ask that uh we individually stand up for that family photo so that there's no traffic. We don't, as I said, the president is is