Western Australia seeks business-based friendship

Western Australia wants to establish business-based friendship with Tamil Nadu, said Grant Woodhams, Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of the Western Australia (WA) and Members of the Western Australian Parliamentary Delegation on Monday.

Leading a five-member Western Australian Parliamentary Delegation, he told members of Indo-Australian Chamber of Commerce (IACC): “Tamil Nadu has greater relationship with Australia than any other Indian State. We need a platform to build a stronger relationship. The relationship between the two should go beyond cricket and education. We are trying to establish link between people to people to understand each other better.”

Direct air-link

Mr. Woodhams, who is visiting Chennai after two years, called for direct air link between Chennai and Perth.

“India offers a magnificent challenge and we are here to extend friendship and to strengthen our bonds. We will look at the strengths and weaknesses of both the countries to reverse it and complement each other. There is a growth potential in education and that calls for exchange of students and faculty,” he said.

Australian Consul General in Southern India David Holly said the country had about 25 ongoing MoUs with the State government and was ready to offer training in education and in delivery of vocational education.

In his welcome address, C. Sarat Chandran, Director, IACC, said WA was the first one to set up Trade Office in India in 1997 and mentioned that WA's share in Indo-Australian trade was significantly more than that of any other Australian State.

The two-way trade between India and WA stood at A$ 8.7 billion.

India is the third biggest market for WA and 53 per cent of all Australian exports are from that region, he said.

Highlighting the growing trade relations and visits by high-level business missions to Chennai in recent times, he said: “These visits have considerably strengthened WA's trade relations with India. It is time to look at some specific opportunities for enlarging the scope of engagement between India and WA.”