A few days ago, NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell left on his third official visit to India to promote trade and investment opportunities for NSW.
Increasing trade between New South Wales and India is a key priority of the NSW Government – which is why every year the Premier leads a trade and investment mission to the country.
O’Farrell’s government has plans to continue making annual trade missions to India as it is an important trading partner for NSW.
It is noteworthy that the trade ties between Australia and India could be sourced to when the first commercial export of 150 tons of coal was shipped to India in 1799, which has now grown to many billions of dollars.
Even the visitors from India are choosing Sydney and NSW as their holiday destination for many reasons – whether it’s visiting our spectacular natural attractions, tasting the local produce, or seeing world class sporting and cultural events and festivals, the number of visitors is growing with each passing year.
Latest visit of O’ Farrell also aims at promoting trade and investment opportunities for NSW.
During the one week visit, O’Farrell will meet senior government representatives and business leaders in Delhi, Ahmedabad and Mumbai with a focus on the infrastructure, education, financial services and tourism sectors.
“I’m looking forward to returning to India to build on the strong relationship between NSW and India, which is a priority market for our State,” O’Farrell said.
“India is NSW’s second largest source of international students, with almost 11,300 Indian student enrolments in NSW in 2012. In 2012–13, India was Australia’s largest source of permanent and skilled migrants and the Indian community is the fourth-largest migrant community in our country”, he said.
“I will reinforce my message that NSW is open and ready for business with India. NSW and India are both pursuing ambitious infrastructure programs, with the Indian Government aiming to invest a staggering US$1 trillion into infrastructure in the five years to 2017”.
“I am confident NSW has the strong infrastructure services capabilities that could support the delivery of many of these planned projects”, he added.
“My visit also reaffirms our strong friendship with India, which was highlighted last month when NSW hosted the Regional Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (Overseas Indians Day) – the first time this event has been held in Australia.
O’Farrell will address several high-level industry and investor groups focusing on opportunities in financial services, infrastructure, clean technology and tourism.
“I will also meet the Chief Minister of Maharashtra State, Prithviraj Chavan, to discuss the next stages of the NSW-Maharashtra sister-state memorandum of understanding,” he said.
“Our MoU with Maharashtra – India’s leading industrial State and home of Bollywood – is an important step forward in the relationship between our two economies,” he added.
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