“I’ve always held the belief that our trade is investment-led; it will grow exponentially if we have more investments both ways” – Anil Wadhwa, Former Secretary, India’s Ministry of External Affairs

On November 26th leaders from India and Australia met at Horasis India Meeting in Adelaide to discuss trade and innovation across both countries.

Globally, India ranks 5^th in GDP and Australia 14^th, however by capita India is 122nd and Australia 21st, with India set to have the fastest growing economy in the Indo-Pacific region at 8% or more. 

Both India and Australia embrace hi-tech and high added value manufacturing to support an Industry 4.0 model. This being said, what new government initiatives are needed to boost growth in both nations?  Have they opportunities for collaboration – in which sectors?

Anil Wadhwa, Former Secretary of India’s Ministry of External Affairs, re-iterated that investments goes in both directions for the countries.

“I’ve always held the belief that our trade is investment-led; it will grow exponentially if we have more investments both ways”, said the former Ambassador to Italy, Thailand, Oman and Poland.

Speakers at the session included:

• Vivek Dahiya, IP Practitioner, Lawyer & IP Attorney, Baxter IP, Australia
• Chandrashekar Kupperi, Founder Director, ANOVA Corporate Services, India
• Petah Marian, Director of Futures Research and Communications, KPMG, Australia
• Sarabjit Singh, Managing Director, Akal Information Systems, India
• Anil Wadhwa, Former Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs, India
• Barry O’Farrell, Former Premier of New South Wales, Australia

In 2022, India was Australia’s sixth-largest two-way goods and services trading partner and fourth-largest goods and services export market. Two-way goods and services trade with India was $48.4 billion in 2022.

Australia’s exports to India totalled $34.8 billion and imports from India totalled $13.5 billion in 2022. Australia’s stock of investment in India was $17.6 billion at 2022 and India’s total investment in Australia was $34.5 billion.

Featured photo of Anil Wadhwa