March 10, 2023
NEW DELHI – Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Thursday said the Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA) signed between India and Australia was a transformative pact that would unlock the next level of potential in bilateral trade and investment.
Addressing the India-Australia CEO forum in Mumbai, he expressed optimism about the complementarities between the two nations and said the time was ripe for accelerating bilateral economic cooperation.
Albanese expressed appreciation for the large turnout of Australian investors who came to India with him as well as for the key Indian business houses that participated in the meeting. This, he said, was one of the most serious and high-profile delegations to visit India from Australian shores.
Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal, who also participated in the CEO Forum, noted that the goal of doubling the bilateral trade must be reset by the industries and CEOs present there as there was a great potential to increase the bilateral trade manifold.
He observed that the current market share of Australian businesses in India was only a minuscule of the potential, given India’s population, rapid growth in the middle class and the growing demands of the overall economy for a better lifestyle.
Australian Minister for Trade and Tourism Don Farrell pointed out that $2.5 billion worth of trade benefitted from the lower tariffs arising from the ECTA agreement in January 2023 alone and reassured that this growth would continue to further rise. He urged the industry to think much bigger to satiate the demands of the growing relationship.