Australia offers plenty of business opportunities to India

Ahmedabad, Jun 25 (UNI) Australia is well poised to take advantage of the expanding business opportunities in India and so far the Australian Trade Commission has helped about 400 Indian companies to source goods and services from Australia, said Michael Moignard, Senior Trade Commissioner and South Asia Australian Trade Commission.

''Our entrepreneurs -- large and small -- with expertise in areas as diverse as agriculture, wine, consumer goods, health, mining, infrastructure, services, film and entertainment are successfully working hand-in-hand with businsess partners in the region,'' said Mr Moignard.

He was addressing an interactive session on ''Doing Business with Australia'' organised by Confederation of Indian Industries here today.

''The Australian Trade Commission (Austrade) is the Australian government's international trade promotion and export facilitation agency and a logical first port-of-call for Indian companies wanting to do business with Australia,'' said Mr Moignard.

''With 80 points of contact across Australia and a presence in 10 Indian cities, Austrade provides a network of industry specialists offering a range of free services for Indian businesses including advice on and access to appropriate business partners; on-going support to source new Australian products and services, ideas for growing ones business with the help of Australian innovations and to develop tailored business visit programms to Australia,'' he said.

Austrade has launched 'Utsav Australia' or celebrate Australia, the Australian government's three-year initiative, to raise awareness of Australian industry capability in India and to help Indian companies find the right Australian partner for Indian business.

Talking about the range of areas of businesses covered under the 'Utsav Australia', Mr Moignard spoke on wine technology. He said, ''Australia is a leading producer and exporter of premium quality and branded table wines. The Australian wine industry has established state-of-the-art infrastructure and facilities for processing, bottling, storage, labelling and packaging. To meet the increasing demand for Australian wine, the area under vine has increased to over 1,57,000 hectares. Over 1798 wineries process Australian wine grapes drawn from 67 regions nationwide.''.

Moignard said the image of Australian fashion has been boosted in recent years by the style and elegance of Australian Hollywood actors such as Nicole Kidman, Naomi Watts and Cate Blanchett.

''Australian fashion has a reputation for being progressive and ahead of its time. The Australian lifestyle is reflected in the freshness and originality of the colours, materials and design,'' he said.

''Australia boasts of a large number of talented designers that are quickly gaining an international following. They can often be seen on the catwalks of New York, London, Shanghai and Paris.

Australia's key capabilities include swim and resort wear, street and urban wear, surf wear, children's wear, lingerie, evening wear and accessories,'' he said.

Speaking on retail, consumer and franchising sector, Mr Moignard said the Australian lifestyle is reflected across an array of consumer products and franchising systems. From fashion, cosmetics, furniture, gifts, toys, games, precious stones, unique jewellery, furniture and homewares to food and non-food franchising systems, Australian style and expertise is being enjoyed by consumers around the world.

Regarding the mining sector, Mr Moignard said ''Australia is one of the most significant mining nations in the world and has the world's largest economic resources of lead, mineral sands, tantalum uranium, silver and zinc. Australia has the third largest minerals sector by value of production after the US and South Africa. Mining has contributed 500 billion dollars directly to Australia's wealth over the past 20 years. Australia exports minirals, mining equipment, services and technologies.'' UNI