Major Indian Industry Groups to Assist Canberra Businesses Get a Foothold in New Markets

Two major Indian industry groups have offered to arrange introductions between businesses in Canberra and India to help promote further trade.

The offer came as the Mumbai leg of the ACT-India trade mission concluded yesterday when the ACT trade delegation held a series of meetings with officials from two major business organisations, the Bombay Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the India Merchants' Chamber.

Chief Minister Jon Stanhope and Canberra Business Council Executive Director John Miller said the discussions focused on ways to build greater contact between businesses in Mumbai and Canberra, including arranging introductions between companies from the two cities.

‘Both organisations have extensive memberships in Mumbai and across India. Both expressed a readiness to help our businesses with relevant introductions in Mumbai,’ Mr Miller said.

Mr Stanhope said the meetings were also about raising the awareness of Canberra and the unique capabilities of its business community and highly skilled workforce.

‘We also discussed exploring some of the commercial opportunities beyond the direct focus of the ACT trade delegation,’ Mr Stanhope said.

‘In particular, we had very interesting discussions around education exports.

‘Despite the enormous numbers of ICT and engineering graduates coming out of India every year, there still seems to be significant gaps in the way education and training is delivered, even in areas where India is an apparent leader.

‘Australia attracts a lot of interest in India as an education provider, particularly as it has recently overtaken the United Kingdom as the second preferred education destination by Indian students.

‘With around 29,000 students now studying in Australia, it is closing on the USA with around 60,000 students. The number of Indian students in Australia is forecast to grow rapidly over the next twelve months.

‘The growth in students from India presents excellent opportunities for the ACT's education sector,’ Mr Stanhope said.

Mr Miller said the common themes across the meetings with both Mumbai-based business Chambers, and the earlier meeting with the Mahratta Chamber of Commerce in Pune, were the need for training courses for middle managers and the associated need for applied and contextual learning.

‘There is genuine interest in an education and skills migration approach that would provide Indian students with both structured and applied learning in an Australian business environment,’ Mr Miller said. ‘That might have considerable appeal, given the complementary skills issues we face in Canberra.’

The meetings concluded with an agreement to share information in the short term and explore the issues raised between like-minded companies and providers in both cities.