Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday invited Australian businesses to take advantage of investment opportunities in India in sectors like digital infrastructure, telecom, and semiconductors.
He suggested the Australian CEOs to forge partnerships with their Indian counterparts.
The prime minister, while addressing top Australian CEOs at a business round-table here, also talked about numerous economic reforms undertaken by the government.
He "invited them to take advantage of investment opportunities offered by India in domains of infrastructure including digital infrastructure, IT, fintech, telecom, semiconductors, space, renewable energy including green hydrogen, education, pharma, healthcare including medical devices manufacturing, mining including critical minerals, textile, agriculture and food processing, " Official Spokesperson, Ministry of External Affairs, Arindam Bagchi said in a tweet.
The government has taken steps like reducing compliance burden, introduction of production linked incentive scheme and easing of foreign direct investment norms.
On May 23, the prime minister met business leaders of top Australian companies and called for enhancing cooperation with the Indian industry in areas such as technology, skilling and clean energy.
Modi arrived in Sydney on Monday for the third and final leg of his three-nation tour.
He is visiting Australia as a guest of the Australian government.
Modi held bilateral meetings with Hancock Prospecting Executive Chairman Gina Rinehart; Fortescue Future Industry Executive Chairman Andrew Forrest and AustraliaSuper CEO Paul Schroder.
During April 2000 and December 2022, India received USD 1.07 billion in investments from Australia, according to government data.
Both countries have already implemented an interim free trade agreement on December 29 last year. The two nations are now engaged in widening the scope of that agreement into a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA).
Australia was the 13th largest trading partner of India in 2022-23. While exports stood at USD 6.95 billion, imports from that country aggregated at USD 19 billion.
India is Australia’s largest export market for gold and chickpeas, the second-largest market for coal and copper ores and the third-largest market for lead and wool.
Key imports from Australia include coal, copper ores and concentrates and petroleum.