Australian Trade Commission opens office in city.

KOCHI: In an effort to give an impetus to economic cooperation with India, the Australian Trade Commission opened its eleventh office in the country in Kochi on Monday.

"The bilateral trade has been growing at 25 percent a year in the past five years," Australian High Commissioner to India Peter N Varghese said.

Addressing a press conference to announce the setting up of a new trade office at The Gateway Hotel in Kochi, he said India was the third largest export market for Australia while his country was the fifth largest trading partner for India.

Australia sees India as a country which is going to play a pivotal role not only in the region but also globally. This is a relationship with enormous potential, he said.Varghese said there was scope for largescale Indian investment in the resources sector in Australia as well as for increased cooperation in core areas such as infrastructure, education, food processing and tourism.

"We will seek to broaden the economic relationship. Though trade relations look impressive, they are centred around coal, gold and copper, which constitutes 87 percent of the trade," he said.

He added that Kerala and the rest of India are going in for various infrastructure projects and the Australian companies have very good exposure in building pipelines. An Australian company Leighton had laid the gas pipeline for the Kochi Refineries.

The fact that Australia is the only federal government to have a trade office in Kerala reflects its commitment to Indo-Australia trade relations, he said.

Australia and India have recently concluded an import deal of 20 billion dollars with energy major Petronet to supply gas to Gurgaon from 2014. The receiving terminal will be at Kochi.

Varghese said education at the postgraduate level and shooting venues for the film industry are the other areas where his country was looking to trade with India.

"There are attractive destinations in Australia, some of which have been used in Bollywood films. We hope more films, including Malayalam films are shot there," Varghese said.

A feasibility study on Free Trade Agreement (FTA) conducted jointly by the two countries was being considered by the Indian Cabinet, he added.

The Australian Trade Commission (Austrade) is the Australian Government's trade and investment development agency and the first portofcall for Indian companies wanting to do business with Australia.


Source : expressbuzz.com