Iemma highlights investment opportunities
NSW Premier Morris Iemma delivered the 2007 Accor-Qantas Australia India Address organized by the Australia India Business Council (AIBC) on 30 August 2007 in Sydney which outlined the NSW Government’s future strategic vision and direction in relation to its relationship with India. The sold out event was attended by over 400 government and business community members.
Indian Consul General Sujan Chinoy said India was Australia’s largest export market for Gold, second for coal and copper and third for wool. He said NSW accounts for 33% of imports from India and a large no of Indian companies have presence in IT, mining and automotive sector in NSW. He said Airline Code sharing and easing of visa arrangements would contribute to economic flow and exciting times lay ahead for this relationship. Making a reference to Bollywood he said Indian film industry is attracted to Sydney’s charms and commented about the performance of South Australian Premier Mike Rann who is acting in a cameo role in Indian movie India Live story 2050. He had the audience in splits when he questioned the Premier if he had a similar plan.
Morris Iemma started his address by referring to Indian Independence. “Six decades ago the Indian tricolor was raised before sunset and a monsoon rainbow emerged, which was a glittering tribute from the heavens. Nehru rose and delivered the most famous speech ever delivered by any Indian”.We made a tryst with destiny. That night on the 15th August on 1947 was one of the great achievements of the 20th century”, he said. India’s sixth decades of achievements are remarkable, he said and termed maintaining a free press and democracy, a middle class bigger than the entire population of US, creating an IT hub, doubling life expectancy and creating world’s largest film industry as its achievements.
“Australia India friendship has been there for decades. As members of Common Wealth, Australians and Indians worked together in Palestine in 1st world war and in Africa and Burma in 2nd world war. We share respect for the rule of law, commitment to free markets and federal national parliaments, a common national day on Jan 26, and common obsession to cricket. Australian Indians form an irreplaceable link in the Australian Indian unity”, he added.
He said while India has risen from being Australia’s 25th largest export market to its 6th  trade investment between NSW and India was still low. He said, “Although it is increasing since the last 3 years when Bob Carr went to India we could still do much better. This is the reason I will be leading a trade mission to India in November to sell NSW to India and its investments. We make it clear that our state is open to business. You have to do that for simple reason. That no nation or a state gets a free ride in the global economy and nor should they. We can’t take it granted that international decision makers will continue to bring investment and jobs to NSW. That’s why we constantly have to our review our efforts to leverage NSW proven strengths and increase our international profile and that why we are going to India. The reality is we are facing a lot of competition from hundreds of provinces, states and countries like US, Canada, Austria, Germany and many other rivals who are struggling to make the same case.”
He acknowledged, “Service exports in India and China need strengthening. Our positioning as a competitive innovative high value provider of services needs nurturing.” We need to build better networks to realize the investment opportunities in the emerging economic superpowers in our region. We have Relationships with China’s sister cities and don’t have such well developed business and research network with India. That’s one of our big challenges. The key challenge is the low level of awareness of our industries strengths. Australia conjures images of opera house and beaches and minerals. Our exports are mainly resource based but diversification is happening. This is good news for NSW because 83% of NSW economy is in services and contributes 40% of service exports, he said. He added, “To add depth to this relationship and we are prepared to put in effort to benefit. This is the age of superpowers – India and China and the window of emerging opportunities will not come back in our life time.”
The business delegation is visiting Mumbai on 21 and 22 November and New Delhi on 23 November.Anyone willing to accompany this delegation contact (02) 93386686 or visit http://www.business.nsw.gov.au/indiamission
MORRIS 2007 ACCOR-QANTAS AUSTRALIA INDIA ADDRESS SPEAK
In last year’s economic and financial statement we signaled a new direction in our international engagement and adopted a coordinated approach to free up resources for a flexible strategy. We have been doing this in several ways.
Decided to close government offices in Tokyo and London. Resources tied up in expensive properties. We decided to divest ourselves of these assets and as this approach limited our flexibility in approaching key markets.
My government is targeting trade and promotion to priority markets with special attention to China and India.
Strengthening the partnership with the Australian federal government to take a different approach top other states. Australian government has offices in 140 locations across the globe. Rather than duplicate trade and investment promotions we link the efforts of the federal government. We seek to work in partnership with DFAT, Invest Australia and Austrade.
Understand the importance of working with non government networks like AIBC.
MORRIS IEMMA NSW POSITIONING FOR INDIA
India has taken an approach of building services sector over other sectors. Sydney is a global financial sector and can attract Indian financial services to invest here in high value financial services to build global supply chains in this area.. India’s forex of over 200 billion can provide good exposure to Australian fund management industry.
Strong prospects in logistics and transaction services. India’s rapid growth in logistics services manufacturing and retail is providing opportunities for NSW firms. Woolworths has recently done a JV with the Tata group and Leighton and Macquarie bank are active in India.
NSW has competencies in design, architecture environment management which fits uniquely with Indias massive program of infrastructure investment.
Digital animation, pre and post film production we should see more opportunities from Bollywood. India film industry is looking for more international locations and Sydney can attract more films.
Indian community contributes to tourism. India is our fastest inbound tourism source contributing to annual rate of over 16% over next decade. NSW will get over 116,000 visitors from India this year.
Australia is becoming second most international destination after US for Indian students and is now displacing UK. To attract more students I have asked NSW Chancellors committee to accompany me to my mission to India.
Similar Posts:
- Aussie scholarships on offer for Indians
- Parliamentary Secretary for Asia-Pacific Trade, Paul Toole’s speech at the AIBC
- Anupam Sharma in Power List 50 of Australian Film Industry
- AIBC Australia-India Address a Huge Success – Kevin Rudd’s Message
- IITians address industry concerns
