South African Minister Thabathe calls on Virbhadra Singh

New Delhi, Mar 28 (ANI): Deputy Minister for Trade and Industry, South Africa, Elizabeth Thabathe along with her officials called on Minister of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Virbhadra Singh here on Monday.

Singh welcomed the visiting dignitaries and assured full co-operation for the development of MSME sector in both countries.

He also said that MSME is one of the most important sector contributing to Indian economy.

"It is because of this that the Government has established an exclusive Ministry for overseeing the development of this sector," he added.

Meanwhile, Thabathe expressed her gratitude and conveyed the greetings of the President of South Africa Jacob Zuma to the Indian people.

She informed that National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC) has a presence in the South Africa and has been extending full cooperation to the South African Government and has also been advising their counterpart entity the Small Industry Development Agency (SIDA) from the past several years.

She stated that her objective is to enhance the bilateral relation between the two countries and in this regard, she would like to send a business delegation to participate in the forthcoming 'Techmart' being organized by NSIC under the aegis of India International Trade Fair in November 2011.

She expressed her desire to collaborate with Indian MSME sector in view of the tremendous work done by India in this sector.

She briefly gave the background of South African small business sector.

Virbhadra Singh assured the Deputy Minister of South Africa that NSIC would provide all the necessary support to the South African MSMEs. (ANI)