Johannesburg:
Indian companies, diplomats in South Africa have welcomed the announcement of President Cyril Ramaphosa to reform the country’s visa regime.
Cyril Ramaphosa on Thursday in his speech on the State of the Nation at the City of Cape City said that South Africa was waiting for greater tourism and businesses in India and China after the digitalization of the country’s visa regime.
“As part of our reform agenda, we will continue to improve our visa system to facilitate qualified people to invest in our country and grow tourism in South Africa,” said Cyril Ramaphosa.
“This year, we will launch an electronic travel authorization system to enable a safe and totally digital visa application process. This system will use artificial intelligence and automation to reduce the scope of corruption and allow quick response times for tourist visas.
“We have eliminated more than 90 percent of the portfolio of more than 300,000 visa applications,” Ramaphosa said.
The president said that the proposed changes “would send a strong message that South Africa is open for business and tourism.”
Indian companies have lamented delays for a long time in the issuance of visas, and some threaten to divert investment in other parts of Africa.
“There have been challenges both in visas and direct flights. We have seen that the governments of India and South Africa have been trying to solve these problems as soon as possible and create opportunities and facilitate so that our people are conveniently involved.
“This has been happening and we observed with great satisfaction and happiness that the South African government at the highest level is considering and making many efforts to contribute to this respect,” said Mahesh Kumar, the general consul of India in Johannesburg.
“This is very encouraging and substantially contributing to bring our two societies closer and make us collaborate more closely in businesses and tourism,” Kumar added.
Ashish Sharma, CEO of 24 By 7 Travel, a company specialized in trips between India and South Africa, said that the new visa regime would not only push the number of tourists to South Africa, but also even more encouraged airlines to consider direct flights to South Africa before before.
“This new visa regime will increase travel from a large market like India. South Africa has a lot of potential to attract tourists from India, considering the climate, natural beauty and culture and common heritage, but unfortunate Visit the country in the past, maximum potential due to delayed and complex visa procedures and the lack of direct flights between India and South Africa, “said Ashish Sharma.
“I am glad that the first challenge is resolved and I am sure that the second will be resolved soon. We are obtaining positive contributions from the government and the aviation sector to consider direct flights between India and South Africa,” added Ashish Sharma.
Ashish Sharma said that the main airlines in India were receiving new aircraft in 2026, which made it sure that there would be direct flights between South Africa and India.
Gourish Chakrádthy, president of the Bengalí Association of South Africa and CEO of Ion Exchange Safic, a joint business between the two countries, said people were aware of tourism in India.
“This digitalization of the visa reform of South Africa is very welcome, since not only will it accelerate the issuance of visas, but will also help eliminate the errors involved in the scrutiny of the visa application and the issuance of genuine visas for people .
“This will help all people who deserve the visa to obtain it in time and contribute to the economy, which makes it easier for people to visit this beautiful country and help increase their income generated by tourism,” said Chakra, “
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a union feed).
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