dassin
FULL MEMBER
New Recruit
- Joined
- Mar 11, 2011
- Messages
- 9
- Reaction score
- 0
Kolkatas Arun Jagatramka is a popular figure in government circles in Sydney. Officials of the New South Wales government, which is headquartered in this city, never tire of citing him as an example of what foreign investors can do in this resource-rich country. Jagatramka owns what is arguably coal mines with the best view, the mines overlooking the beautiful sea some 70km from Sydney. These were century-old mines that were being closed but I took a calculated risk and bought them at throwaway prices. Now we find there are reserves of premium hard coal worth 550 million tons and life for 50-60 years, Jagatramka me. He added: Jobs have been created and incomes generated, making the local community happy.
In neigbouring Queensland state that has the largest coal reserves in the world, Ahmedabads Gautam Adani is fast rising to eminence. Adani has bought the rights of coal mining in the Galilee Basin, aiming to establish a huge, 60 million tons per annum, facility. A 150km rail line to the port, which will also benefit other coal miners in the region, is part of the Adani charter. Adanis Gallilee mines, now renamed Carmichael project after a river that runs in the region, will yield coal for over 100 years, says Samir Vora, director of Adani Mining Pty, sitting in an office in the a posh commercial complex in Brisbane. A Lanco proposal to mine coal in Western Australia, through a project that is the largest in the state, is also in the final stage of approval.
We welcome Indian investments in huge quantum. Australia is built on the back of foreign investments and there is no way that we can do this on our own, says Australias federal minister for resources, energy and tourism, Martin Ferguson. So keen is the minister on Indias investment that recently he went public with the demand that an Australian ban on uranium exports to India be lifted. Australia has the largest reserve of uranium in the world.
Director of Access Economics, Ian Harper, explains the Australian need for Indian investments. Australia is a huge country rich in minerals iron, bauxite, uranium and coal. But with a population of merely 22 million, there is no one to mine this stuff. Two decades ago we welcomed China and they set up huge mining facilities. They carried the iron ore back home and we got moolah. But rich though we have become there is a growing economic and geopolitical concern about this Chinese overdependence and its implications. This is where India comes in. India can become a counterveiling force to China, says Harper. Yes, they are wooing Indian companies big time, says Indias consul general in Sydney, Amit Dasgupta. Concern over this Chinese over-dependence is a subject of great debate in Australian newspapers these days although everyone realises that this huge Chinese demand for Australian resources all through the global financial crisis saw the latter country boom. This has led to the Australian dollar touching a value that is equal to the US dollar and unprecedented prosperity Down Under.. So huge is the Australian dependence on China that bankers often use the value of the Australian dollar as a proxy for the Chinese currency. But clearly the Aussies are now a bit concerned about the geopolitical impact of this relationship, says CEO of SBIs Sydney operations, S Salee. Government officials, on record, are of course more circumspect. Lets put it like this. China has supported us through the financial crisis. Now we are looking towards India, says Eric Roozendaal, Treasurer and minister for state and regional development of the New South Wales government. But off the record, Australian officials confess how there is a lot of apprehension about the motives of the Chinese. The treasurer says that the Indians are welcome not only to prospect for minerals and exploit them but also free to buy land for farming. In India, corporates have been wanting to go into farming for long. They can exploit the opportunity in Australia, says SBIs Salee. Not surprisingly, the Chinese have huge land holdings Down Under, though no estimates could be obtained.
Analysts say that Australia may present a great opportunity but Indian businessmen should gear up to strong corporate governance and environmental norms. They point to Pankaj Oswal, who had set up a $700 million fertiliser plant in Western Australia a few years ago and became well known for the $70 million mansion that he built and the parties that he threw. Now he has run way leaving behind his company in debt and with charges of financial misdeamenour. The India investment story is unlikely to be halted by the Oswal episode, there are many such operators here too, says Hamish McDonald, Asia Pacific Editor of the Sydney Morning Herald. But as Mihir Dave, executive assistant to Arun Jagatramka, says : If you are thinking of cutting corners the way many businessmen in India do, dont even think of doing so in Australia. As they say, in Rome do as Romans do.
Even as Australia woos India, there is a nagging fear in the mind of the Aussies. The attack on Indian students in Melbourne has shocked the Australians no less than India. Over the last one year herculean efforts have been made by the Australian agencies to ensure that no racist attacks take place. This is borne out of the realisation that poor people-to-people relationships can mar investment prospects too. Everybody starting from Hakan Akyol, deputy chairperson of the Multicultural Commission of Victoria to Harish Rao, chairman of the Australia India Business Council impress upon me that Melbourne is a city where people of over 50 diverse nationalities live and therefore there is no cause for worry. This a point that Indias consul general in Melbourne, Anita Nayyar, also agrees with. Things are much better now, says Nayyar, whose term in Melbourne was extended by a year to mend things.
Incidentally the steady stream of students pursuing vocational courses that will lead to gainful employement continues. Australians are great ones for vocational training for various trades, be it be carpentry, fitting or beauty treatment. That is why there are many such institutes, points out SBIs Salee. Noel Lyon of Boxhill Institute, located on the outskirts of Melbourne and which has good numbers of Indian students, looks fazed when I question him about the rationale of having an institute that trains students to learn beauty therapy. No, no, there is a lot to learn, he says taking us on a conducted tour of the labs where beauty therapy is taught. But Indian students are quite clear that they are here because they are looking for a job and immigration after finishing the course.
In neigbouring Queensland state that has the largest coal reserves in the world, Ahmedabads Gautam Adani is fast rising to eminence. Adani has bought the rights of coal mining in the Galilee Basin, aiming to establish a huge, 60 million tons per annum, facility. A 150km rail line to the port, which will also benefit other coal miners in the region, is part of the Adani charter. Adanis Gallilee mines, now renamed Carmichael project after a river that runs in the region, will yield coal for over 100 years, says Samir Vora, director of Adani Mining Pty, sitting in an office in the a posh commercial complex in Brisbane. A Lanco proposal to mine coal in Western Australia, through a project that is the largest in the state, is also in the final stage of approval.
We welcome Indian investments in huge quantum. Australia is built on the back of foreign investments and there is no way that we can do this on our own, says Australias federal minister for resources, energy and tourism, Martin Ferguson. So keen is the minister on Indias investment that recently he went public with the demand that an Australian ban on uranium exports to India be lifted. Australia has the largest reserve of uranium in the world.
Director of Access Economics, Ian Harper, explains the Australian need for Indian investments. Australia is a huge country rich in minerals iron, bauxite, uranium and coal. But with a population of merely 22 million, there is no one to mine this stuff. Two decades ago we welcomed China and they set up huge mining facilities. They carried the iron ore back home and we got moolah. But rich though we have become there is a growing economic and geopolitical concern about this Chinese overdependence and its implications. This is where India comes in. India can become a counterveiling force to China, says Harper. Yes, they are wooing Indian companies big time, says Indias consul general in Sydney, Amit Dasgupta. Concern over this Chinese over-dependence is a subject of great debate in Australian newspapers these days although everyone realises that this huge Chinese demand for Australian resources all through the global financial crisis saw the latter country boom. This has led to the Australian dollar touching a value that is equal to the US dollar and unprecedented prosperity Down Under.. So huge is the Australian dependence on China that bankers often use the value of the Australian dollar as a proxy for the Chinese currency. But clearly the Aussies are now a bit concerned about the geopolitical impact of this relationship, says CEO of SBIs Sydney operations, S Salee. Government officials, on record, are of course more circumspect. Lets put it like this. China has supported us through the financial crisis. Now we are looking towards India, says Eric Roozendaal, Treasurer and minister for state and regional development of the New South Wales government. But off the record, Australian officials confess how there is a lot of apprehension about the motives of the Chinese. The treasurer says that the Indians are welcome not only to prospect for minerals and exploit them but also free to buy land for farming. In India, corporates have been wanting to go into farming for long. They can exploit the opportunity in Australia, says SBIs Salee. Not surprisingly, the Chinese have huge land holdings Down Under, though no estimates could be obtained.
Analysts say that Australia may present a great opportunity but Indian businessmen should gear up to strong corporate governance and environmental norms. They point to Pankaj Oswal, who had set up a $700 million fertiliser plant in Western Australia a few years ago and became well known for the $70 million mansion that he built and the parties that he threw. Now he has run way leaving behind his company in debt and with charges of financial misdeamenour. The India investment story is unlikely to be halted by the Oswal episode, there are many such operators here too, says Hamish McDonald, Asia Pacific Editor of the Sydney Morning Herald. But as Mihir Dave, executive assistant to Arun Jagatramka, says : If you are thinking of cutting corners the way many businessmen in India do, dont even think of doing so in Australia. As they say, in Rome do as Romans do.
Even as Australia woos India, there is a nagging fear in the mind of the Aussies. The attack on Indian students in Melbourne has shocked the Australians no less than India. Over the last one year herculean efforts have been made by the Australian agencies to ensure that no racist attacks take place. This is borne out of the realisation that poor people-to-people relationships can mar investment prospects too. Everybody starting from Hakan Akyol, deputy chairperson of the Multicultural Commission of Victoria to Harish Rao, chairman of the Australia India Business Council impress upon me that Melbourne is a city where people of over 50 diverse nationalities live and therefore there is no cause for worry. This a point that Indias consul general in Melbourne, Anita Nayyar, also agrees with. Things are much better now, says Nayyar, whose term in Melbourne was extended by a year to mend things.
Incidentally the steady stream of students pursuing vocational courses that will lead to gainful employement continues. Australians are great ones for vocational training for various trades, be it be carpentry, fitting or beauty treatment. That is why there are many such institutes, points out SBIs Salee. Noel Lyon of Boxhill Institute, located on the outskirts of Melbourne and which has good numbers of Indian students, looks fazed when I question him about the rationale of having an institute that trains students to learn beauty therapy. No, no, there is a lot to learn, he says taking us on a conducted tour of the labs where beauty therapy is taught. But Indian students are quite clear that they are here because they are looking for a job and immigration after finishing the course.
