· Provides opportunities to be part of Skill India Mission
· Other top sectors include agribusiness, resources and tourism
Mumbai, 23 April 2018: Education has greatest potential to be the biggest growth sector for doing business with India, says a new report to be submitted to the Australian Government.
The report, being compiled by University of Queensland Chancellor Peter Varghese, looks at the future of trade with the sub-continent over the next 20 years.
According to Mr Varghese, Australia’s expertise in education can be instrumental in fostering the ambition of the Indian Government to upskill 400 million people by 2022, as part of its Skill India Mission. “There is no other market with the growth tissue for trade and investment for Australia in the next 20 years than the Indian market,” he said.
Mr Varghese said the transformation of the Indian economy is well under way, and that Australia can play a big role here considering the way in which education and training weave their way through every sector of the Indian economy.
According to the report, other potential business partnership areas for Australia and India are agribusiness, resources and tourism. “These are the lead sectors - sectors where Australia has an opportunity to be among India’s top five partners on a global scale,” Mr Varghese said.
The report also said the energy, health, financial services, infrastructure, sport, and science and innovation areas also have potential for business partnerships.
“These are areas where Australia may not be a partner of first choice - or even probably in the top five partners for India - but where Australian business can find a niche,” Mr Varghese said. “These niche areas can become opportunities that may actually translate into a substantial trading relationship.”
Mr Varghese said his research showed India’s growth story was not going to be an east-Asian export-led growth story. “It’s going to be a services-led, domestic consumption, foreign-investment critical growth story,” he said. “The India of 2035 will be an India with a very open foreign investment regime and one which will want to encourage investors from Australia and elsewhere.”
Meanwhile, Australia is increasingly attracting students from India. According to data from the Australian High Commission in New Delhi, universities in Australia saw a record seven-year high enrolment from Indians in 2017. In Gold Coast area, Bond University experienced a 20% increase in the number of Indian students over the previous year, while Griffith University reports that Indian students are not only choosing the already popular study options of Engineering and IT, but are increasingly being attracted to courses like Architecture, Pharmacy and Tourism.