‘Tapping Indian market will create jobs for Australia’

Lindsay Fox, Founder and Chairman of the Linfox Group of Companies. File Photo: Ramesh Sharma

As Australia and India embark on an ambitious plan to double two-way trade to USD 40 billion by 2015, a business magnate here has said that tapping the Indian market can create jobs and prosperity for Australia.

Lindsay Fox, who runs billion dollar trucking and logistic firm and led the Australian trade delegation during Prime Minister Julia Gillard visit to India this week, said the country with a booming economy and population of 1.2 billion had a great potential to create jobs and prosperity for Australia.

“We’re in the right spot at the right time and we’ve all got to be smart enough to capitalise on it,”

Herald Sun quoted him as saying.

“That’s a hell of a lot of tomatoes, bananas, cows, sheep or anything that we can produce in Australia,” he said.

Fox further said that there will be 100 million new people every year with money ready to buy things — five times Australia’s population.

It has been noted that in the past Australia did not give top priority to India. Apart from that there were only handful of Australian business leaders doing businesses in India.

ANZ head Mike Smith, who was also part of the business delegation, said he believed that there was already a “can do” spirit of goodwill between the two sides.

Julia Gillard, in her 3—day official visit to the subcontinent, announced enhancing economic relations with India. She said the two countries have set a goal of doubling bilateral trade to USD 40 billion by 2015.

“We have already set a goal of USD 40 billion trade in 2015 - in other words, our trade could double by 2015,” she said, adding that currently the trade between the two nations was growing at 13 per cent a year.

“In recent years, our economic relationship has grown stronger. Two—way trade has grown at 13 per cent per annum in the past five years. Indian investment approvals in Australia grew last year alone to over 11 billion dollars.

“This is a one hundred—fold increase from 10 years ago,” Gillard said. The Australian Prime Minister is expected to unveil a White Paper on Australia in the Asian Century, a blueprint for the nation’s strategic and economic engagement with the region.