Canberra: Australian
Trade and Investment Minister Andrew Robb Friday said there is
something special about India and his country will be a part of this important
period in India`s re-emergence as a significant power.
"There is
something special going on in India. The enormous vision of Prime Minister
Narendra Modi has excited many people. Australia is looking forward to being a
part of this very important period in India`s re-emergence as a significant
power," said Robb in a statement issued here.
Robb arrived
in India Jan 9 and participated in the Australia Business Week in India
(ABWI) roadshow Jan 12-15 to boost trade and investment between the two
countries.
He met Modi,
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and a number of other ministers.
He led a trade
mission to India of over 450 Australian business leaders, including
British-Australian multinational metals and mining corporation Rio Tinto chief
Sam Walsh, Australian petroleum exploration and production company Woodside CEO
Peter Coleman and Australian mineral exploration and extraction company Hancock
Prospecting chair Gina Rinehart.
ABWI visited
eight cities, including Mumbai, Delhi, Chandigarh and Kolkata.
"This
delegation has shown the Indian business community that Australians are
willing, as we would say, to put skin in the game," he said.
"We have
seen a number of deals this week in a variety of sectors building the business
bonds between Australia and India," he said.
These include
agreements between Woodside and the Adani Group on LNG supply,
Wollongong
University and Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University on mining excellence, the
National Australia Bank and the State Bank of India and the SAE Institute and
Reliance Media in the film sector.
Robb
interacted with a number of Indian business leaders, including Adani Group`s
Gautam Adani, Mukesh Ambani from Reliance Industries and Tata Consulting chief
Natarajan Chandrasekaran.
He also
welcomed Walsh as the Australian co-chair and Adani as the Indian co-chair of a
revitalised Australia-India CEO Forum.
"Our top
business leaders will be critical to the success of this relationship. I`m
confident they`re up to the task of building trade and investment, which will
create jobs and increase prosperity for the people of our countries," Robb
said.
Robb welcomed
the strong reiteration from Modi of his commitment to finalise a comprehensive
bilateral trade agreement by the end of this year.
"I will
keep coming back to India to ensure we get our negotiations over the line this year.
This is a key priority for both our prime ministers," he said.
He also attended
Vibrant Gujarat 2015 and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)
Australia-India Business Summit and the CII Global Partnership Summit.
0 comments:
Post a Comment