Johannesburg, Feb 7 (PTI) Indian companies, diplomats in South Africa have welcomed President Cyril Ramaphosa's announcement to reform the country's visa regime.

Ramaphosa on Thursday in his State of the Nation Address at the Cape Town City Hall said South Africa was expecting greater tourism and business from India and China following the digitalisation of the country’s visa regime.

“As part of our reform agenda, we will continue to enhance our visa system to make it easier for skilled people to invest in our country and grow tourism in South Africa," Ramaphosa said.

“This year, we will launch an Electronic Travel Authorisation system to enable a secure, fully digital visa application process. This system will use artificial intelligence and automation to reduce the scope of corruption and enable rapid turnaround times for tourist visas.

“We have cleared over 90 per cent of the backlog of more than 300,000 visa applications,” Ramaphosa said.

The president said the proposed changes would “send a strong message that South Africa is open for business and tourism”.

Indian companies have long lamented delays in the issuance of visas, with some even threatening to divert investment elsewhere in Africa.

“There have been challenges in both visas and direct flights. We have seen that the governments of India and South Africa have been trying to resolve these issues as soon as possible and create opportunities and ease for our people to engage conveniently.

“This has been happening and we note with a lot of satisfaction and happiness that the South African government at the highest level is considering and making lots of efforts to contribute in this regard,” said Mahesh Kumar, the Consul General for India in Johannesburg.

“This is very encouraging and would contribute substantially to bring our two societies even closer and make it possible for us to collaborate more closely in business and tourism,” Kumar added.

Ashish Sharma, CEO of 24 By 7 Travel, a company specialising in travel between India and South Africa, said the new visa regime would not only push tourist numbers into South Africa but also further encourage airlines to consider direct flights to South Africa sooner rather than later.

“This new visa regime will boost travel from a big market like India. South Africa has a lot of potential to attract tourists from India considering the weather, natural beauty and common culture and heritage, but unfortunately, Indians were not able to visit the country in the past full potential because of delayed and complex visa procedures and a lack of direct flights between India and South Africa,” Sharma said.

“I am glad the first challenge will get resolved and I am sure the second one will be resolved soon. We are getting positive inputs from the government and aviation sector about considering direct flights between India and South Africa,” Sharma added.

Sharma said major airlines in India were getting delivery of new aircraft in 2026, making him confident there would be direct flights between South Africa and India.

Gourish Chakravorthy, President of the Bengali Association of South Africa and CEO of Ion Exchange Safic, a joint venture company between the two countries, said people were tourism conscious in India.

“This digitalisation of South Africa’s visa reform is very welcome as it will not only speed up visa issuance but also help in eliminating the errors involved in the scrutiny of visa application and issuance of genuine visas for the people.

“This will assist all the people who deserve the visa to get it on time and contribute to the economy, making it easier for people to visit this beautiful country and help increase its revenue generated from tourism,” Chakravorthy said. PTI FH PY PY