Johannesburg, Aug 25 - Captains of trade and industry from India and South Africa have agreed to support their governments in bolstering relationships between the two countries, with India's Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma affirming to elevate this engagement to a 'higher level'.

Buoyed by the presence of Sharma and his South African counterpart Rob Davies, the CEOs agreed to have formal meetings twice a year -- once in India and once in South Africa.

The CEOs' Forum was started about three years ago under the leadership of Ratan Tata and South African business leader Patrice Motsepe, but has not been very active since.

'The CEOs have said that they are prepared to give their inputs or recommendations to the governments on a bi-annual basis,' Sharma said at a briefing after the meeting Monday.

'The governments of both India and South Africa are supportive of this CEOs' Forum and we will also ensure that the restructured, re-energised forum works in a focussed manner and delivers on its stated objectives,' Anand added.

Davies said: 'We agreed that we will find new ways to re-energise again some of the bilateral negotiations we are involved in (such as) the investment protection agreement, which we have been working on for some time but which has become stalled.

'At the multilateral level, there is the South African Customs Union-India Preferential Trade Agreement which our negotiating team will be meeting on again in the next few months.