The Department of Trade and Industry (the dti) on Monday said Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India, will be visiting South Africa this Friday.

In a statement, the dti Minister Dr Rob Davies said Modi was expected to be accompanied by a high level business delegation and would attend the Business Forum to take place at CSIR (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research) in Pretoria on Friday.

The Business Forum would be preceded by the meeting of the South Africa – India CEOs Forum.

India is now South Africa’s 6th largest trade partner. Trade with India represented 4.9% of South African imports and 4.1% of exports.

Post South Africa’s democracy, India’s investment into South Africa has been in sectors such as in the mining industry, financial services, pharmaceutical sector, and manufacturing.

South Africa has successfully attracted investment from large Indian multinationals such as Tata, Wipro, Cipla and Apollo tyres, among others.

"Companies such as Tata and CIPLA have been early movers and have invested in different projects in South Africa and have a good experience of South Africa as an investment destination," Davies said.

"We welcome CIPLAs expansion and new investment in the value chain of the pharmaceutical sector and look to further investments."

In 2015, trade between the two countries was almost R95-billion.

There is considerable interaction between South Africa and India in the multilateral context, including regular meetings on IBSA, BRICS and India-Africa Forum Summit.