New Delhi: Two months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi discussed opportunities for Australian superfunds to invest in infrastructure projects here, India plans to pitch itself as a stable and high returns market for foreign investment.
In a meeting with at least 20 superfunds on Tuesday in Sydney, commerce and industry minister Suresh Prabhu will deliberate how Australian savings can be invested in major Indian infrastructure projects.
Australia’s superannuation fund, valued at AUD 2.6 trillion ($1.92 trillion) as on December 2017, is one of the world’s largest. Though the fund has exposure in various international markets, it has a limited presence in India. “The meeting is a part of the ongoing exercise to focus on opportunities in India among the superfunds in Australia,” said an official aware of the details.
Officials from Macquarie Group, AMP Capital, StepStone, Caledonia Investments Pty Ltd and AustralianSuper are likely to take part in the round table, a sign of renewed focus on Australia-India bilateral investment cooperation.
“India provides abundant opportunities for Australian superfunds as it did to pension funds from countries like Canada, South Korea and Japan amongst others,” the official added.
TRADE TALKS
Prabhu’s two-day visit to Canberra and Sydney comes days after India invited Australian trade officials to bilaterally iron out issues slowing the progress of the RegionalComprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) trade agreement that spans across ASEAN, Australia, China, India, Japan, Korea and New Zealand.
Ahead of a key ministerial meeting of the RCEP later this month, in which Prabhu is likely to participate, the two countries had specific discussions on agriculture and manufacturing.
Australia is keen to sell base metals as intermediates and came with a “fairly balanced basket of requests on agriculture and manufacturing”, said an official in the know.
Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com