Seeking expansion of economic ties with India, South Africa said on Wednesday it is targeting to increase bilateral trade volume to USD 20 billion by 2018 from the current USD 15 billion.

“The bilateral trade stands at USD 15 billion and we are targeting to reach more than USD 20 billion by 2018,” South Africa’s Minister for International Relations and Cooperation Maite Nkoana-Mashabane said in Gandhinagar.

She was addressing the annual Pravasi Bharatiya Divas.

The Minister said she hopes both countries will draw on their long-standing ties as well as increased cooperation in new forums like BRICS for achieving all economic and social goals set by them.

India and South Africa are members of BRICS, a grouping of five major emerging economies.

Nkoana-Mashabane, the guest of honour at the event which is coinciding with Mahatma Gandhi’s return to India in 1915 from South Africa, said her country is looking forward to cooperation with India on information and communications technology, renewable energy and healthcare.

She suggested joint work on maritime trade, saying nations like India and Mauritius in the Indian Ocean can work together to grow “ocean economy”.

South Africa also wants a change in the working of United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and the Bretton Woods finance institutions (IMF and World Bank), Nkoana-Mashabane maintained.

“... We must intensify the pitch for global institutions of governance such as UNSC and international financial institutions.”

The Minister said South Africa is also looking forward to the establishment of BRICS Bank, which will have an Indian as its first President and will be based in China.

The BRICS Bank was given a concrete shape when the leaders of the grouping met in Brazil in July last year.

The bank, which will begin with an initial size of USD 100 billion, will fund infrastructure and development projects in BRICS and other emerging and developing economies.