Arun Jaitley to woo investors during Australia visit

Melbourne, Mar 24: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will meet top Australian leaders and investors next week and make a strong pitch for foreign investments in India from the country's cash-rich sovereign funds.

Indian High Commissioner Navdeep Suri said that during his four-day visit, the minister will meet New South Wales Premier Mike Baird, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, Treasurer Scott Morrison, Finance Minister Mathias Corman and Energy and Resources Minister Josh Frydenberg. Suri said that Jaitley might also call on Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

Describing Jaitley's schedule as 'a packed and productive one', Suri said: "The visit gives us the opportunity to engage with Australia at multiple levels."

He added that the engagements would cover a wide range of sectors including manufacturing, technology, service, financial and superannuation funds, and the Finance Minister will meet business leaders from the different sectors.

"Australia has a major sovereign fund called the Future Fund and it also has superannuation funds that have estimated assets of over USD 2 trillion. These funds want a good rate of return and we believe that the India growth story creates a win-win proposition – decent returns for the funds and financing for India's infrastructure plans," Suri told PTI.

Jaitley is arriving in Sydney on March 29 and will be accompanied by high-powered Indian business delegations from both CII and FICCI besides a top level team including senior representatives from the Ministry of Finance, RBI and SEBI.

"The meetings with government will seek to enhance bilateral relations in diverse areas, while those with business will try to focus on the Make in India and Invest in India programmes," he said.

Jaitley would woo Australia's trillion dollars superannuation funds industry to invest in India's infrastructure plans.

He will meet top 25 CEOs and executives of Australia's largest superannuation funds at the 'Invest in India Roundtable' here next Friday. Suri said the roundtable would be a key element of the minister's visit.

"We estimate that between them (top CEOs and executives), they would be representing close to USD 1 trillion of assets under one roof. And that's in addition to the high-level FICCI delegation.

We want to use the opportunity to project India as an investment destination to the superannuation funds and also respond to any issues or concerns that they may have,"he said.

Jaitley will deliver a public address at the S P Jain School of Global Management in Sydney, which will be his first official engagement.

He would also deliver the K R Narayanan Oration in Canberra at Australian National University on 'The New Economics of Financial Inclusion' and participate in a panel discussion at the University of Melbourne.

In Canberra, Jaitley would address the Indian community from all across Australia at a special reception organised by the Indian High Commission.

PTI