Topics: Australia-India relationship, trade, AirTrunk investment in India
E&OE
Journalist: What was discussed in the meeting and what’s the general vibe of the room, I guess?
Bran Black: This is a really important forum, and one of the things that I find so interesting and engaging about it is that it really does focus on tangible outcomes. When you do quite a few of these things, you get to see that there are some forums that are very much focused on the messaging and the signalling in the room, and that is very important, but there are other forums, such as this, that have a really strong focus on outcomes outside.
So we’ve seen today in a number of areas there have been some really clear directions and announcements made. Within the context of announcements, you’ve seen, of course, AustralianSuper talking about their $500 million. We’ve seen that there’s a commitment we’ve made as the Business Council of Australia to try and encourage the two-way investment opportunities with increased frequencies of delegations in business, as between the two countries, and we’ll be leading one in December in that respect. That was committed to in the room.
We’ve also committed to closer collaboration around agri-business, particularly with respect to precision technologies, biotechnologies, and climate resilience, and there’s been a strong emphasis on education and the opportunity to drive increased engagement in that space, and we, the BCA, that is, and CII, our Indian counterpart, have agreed an MOU this morning that helps facilitate more training pathways and more work integrated learning opportunities for Indian students and Australian universities. So I think some really good tangible outcomes, but also some really strong signals.
There was a lot of discussion with respect to how we can try to close gaps with respect to investment, so continuing to work on policies, and government policy specifically, that can be improved in order to facilitate that.
There was a strong emphasis on critical minerals, a strong emphasis on greater collaboration around AI and artificial intelligence, cyber security partnerships as well came up to a significant degree, and more broadly, there was a sense of goodwill in the room, and I think that speaks to the relationship.
Journalist: No one sort of doubts the opportunity, and the vast market, and all of that, but the timeline set out by Peter Varghese eight years ago, I think it was, we are sort of running behind on that road map. What’s the reason for that, in investment terms?
Bran: Look, there is unquestionably enormous scope for us to grow that investing relationship. So, if you look at two-way trade, it’s about $50 billion. I think India is our fifth-largest trading partner. If you look at investment, it’s about $70 billion in total, and India is our 10th largest source of two-way investment, if I could use that expression.
So, there is clearly scope for us to close that trade versus investment gap, and the potential there is enormous, particularly when you account for the growth rate of the Indian economy. If you account for the projected size of the middle class, 600 million people by 2035, we should be looking to invest more there.
Now, I would note, with respect to those investment figures, that $72 billion doesn’t account for the $42 billion that AirTrunk has just announced as part of its contribution to that two-way partnership. The CEO of AirTrunk, Robin Khuda, was in India and met with Prime Minister Modi, I think, only about three or four weeks ago, and made that commitment then. So, there is enormous scope for us to dramatically increase that, and I hope we do so soon.
Journalist: We just heard from Tania Constable that Australia will need to open new uranium mines if it wants to meet the demand that could come from India. Do you think we have sort of the right policy environment at the moment to actually allow that exploration and new mine development to occur?
Bran: I’d have to defer to her in terms of the specific policies in that area. What was clear, though, is that this is an area of priority that’s been identified by both governments, and we hope to be able to make the most of it, but in terms of the specifics, I will have to leave that to her.