President Pratibha Devisingh Patil expressed confidence that trade between India and South Africa will reach 15 billion US dollars by 2014 as the two have become important trading partners.

Mrs. Patil and her South African counterpart Jacob Zuma appreciated businesses in both the countries for having reached the earlier target of 10 billion US dollars by 2012, a year ahead of the schedule.

India has asked South Africa to complete their internal discussions so that a broad based Preferential Trade and Investment Agreement could be reached with the Southern Africa Customs Union to serve the mutual interest of both sides.

Addressing the India- South Africa Business forum in Pretoria, Mrs. Patil expressed confidence that this Agreement will provide great opportunities for expansion of trade in goods and services and two-way investment.

Saying that the economic and commercial exchanges between two countries are at the core of bilateral ties,she invited the South African captains of industry to invest in India in the field of infrastructure, Power, roads, airports and ports for which investments of close to one trillion US Dollars would be required in the next five years.

Speaking on the ocassion the President of South Africa Jacob Zuma sought to explore new areas of economic cooperation including energy, information and communication technology, manufacturing and infrastructure development.

He said,establishing the BRICS Development Bank could be realised as a south-south strategy when South Africa holds BRICS Summit next year.