Australia hopeful of a trade and investment agreement with India by year-end

 The Dollar Business Bureau  “Australia is looking to conclude a bilateral economic trade and investment agreement by the end of this year with focus being Services, including education and training,” said Andrew Robb, Minister for Trade and Investment, Australia. The Minister in one of his columns in an Australian news outfit ‘The Australian’, said, “India is our top VET (Vocational Education and Training) market, having grown 27 per cent in the past year alone, and the demand across the next decade will be phenomenal. As part of his inspiring economic transformation plan, India's Prime Minister, Narendra Modi has set his country the task of skilling and training 500 million Indians by 2022.” “Early this year, I led a 450- strong business mission to India that included representation from our higher education, training and skills sectors. The determination within India to address its economic development challenges was palpable. India is looking to back its strengths and become the world’s leading centre for low-cost, labour-intensive manufacturing under its ‘Make in India’ campaign. It is looking to create hundreds of millions of jobs and increase productivity, underpinned by investments in innovation and infrastructure,” he said. Robb added, “In many regards we can expect from India a repeat of what we have seen from China during the past 15 years. The scope for growth in our trading relationship is clear when you consider our two-way trade with India is about $15.5bn, compared with $160bn with China — two countries with one billion plus populations.” It explains the logic in us looking to conclude a bilateral economic trade and investment agreement by the end of this year. Services, including education and training, are a key focus of our negotiations, he concluded.  

This article was published on March 28, 2015.