Indian Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is on his first Australia visit as India’s finance minister. He arrived in Sydney on Tuesday and has held several meetings with stakeholders and potential investors to invite them to invest in India.
On Tuesday, he attended an event at the SP Jain Global Management Institute in Sydney where he spoke about the Australia India bilateral relations.
He later inaugurated Union Bank of India’s Sydney Branch on Tuesday evening.
On Wednesday, he held a meeting with Premier Mike Baird and top officials of the NSW Government. Jaitley, in this meeting, highlighted various initiatives and reforms measures undertaken by the Modi government to boost the Indian economy which is growing at a rate of above 7.5 % currently.
Stating that India needs a lot of Foreign Direct Investment, especially in manufacturing and infrastructure sectors, he said state governments are taking keen interest and competing among themselves to attract foreign investments.
Baird expressed keen interest in investment opportunities in India particularly in the infrastructure sector. He highlighted the importance of communicating the information to larger business community in Australia to enable them to understand the opportunities available in India. Baird also informed the Finance Minister that he intends to visit India during the next 'Vibrant Gujarat' summit in January, 2017.
FM Jaitley then attended the Make in India event organised in Sydney which was attended by his colleague in the government, Piyush Goyal as well as Australia’s former trade minister Andrew Robb, who is playing a pivotal role in the ongoing discussions about the Free Trade Agreement between Australia and India.
Jaitley also met Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop before the Make in India event in Sydney.
