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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2010-09-14 Daily Xml
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Ministerial Statement

SINGAPORE AND INDIA MISSION

The Hon. M.D. RANN (Ramsay—Premier, Minister for Economic Development, Minister for Social Inclusion, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Sustainability and Climate Change) (14:06): I seek leave to make a ministerial statement.

Leave granted.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: Six years ago, following advice from the Economic Development Board, the government began making a concerted effort to establish a strong trading partnership with the emerging global economic giant of India.

While China is well established as one of our nation's and this state's greatest trading partners, India is still a largely untapped market that has huge potential. That is why, for the past six years, I have led five business, trade and education missions into India. In that time, because of the concerted effort of universities and TAFE, and also because of businesses, particularly in the mining industry, the rate of growth of South Australia's exports to India has outstripped that of all of our other trading partners. Indeed, I was told while was in India that the rate of growth of exports in the past year had increased by 120 per cent.

On Sunday, I returned from my fifth trade commission to India, which this time focused strongly, but not entirely, on the benefits of educational opportunities for Indian students to study in South Australia. Given the Indian media's level of attention devoted to certain violent incidents against Indian students, predominately in other parts of Australia, I believed it was important that I delivered the message that South Australia not only has outstanding world-class educational institutions offering the very best courses with the highest standards but that we are safe, affordable and student friendly.

Indeed, I was told that a recent survey of international students voted Adelaide as the number one city in Australia as a student destination (I think it was 6,000 students surveyed)—number one for friendliness, number one for safety, and number one for being affordable. That is a critical message that we had to get across to differentiate ourselves from other parts of Australia. It was a message I believe we managed to deliver effectively to the media in Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi, and in an area where many of the Indian students in this state come from, the Punjab, next to the border with Pakistan.

To put the importance of this message into context, the house should be aware that there has been a 55 per cent average growth per year from 2002 to 2009 in Indian students coming to South Australia to study. That is 55 per cent average per year. Last year, about 7,000 Indian students called Adelaide home, the second largest contingent in our total international student population of 34,000. This is why South Australia cannot afford to have our reputation in India diminished by events elsewhere in Australia.

Our education industry has become our third largest export sector, and I would imagine that very few South Australians realise that it is now our third largest export sector. I am advised that it now earns this state $990 million a year compared with $294 million a year back in 2002 and today supports 6,500 jobs. I was accompanied by representatives of Education Adelaide, which represents local universities, TAFEs and other education providers, and also Professor Michael Worton of University College London. Incidentally, while we were in India, UCL was confirmed as number four in the world rankings of universities behind Cambridge, Yale and Harvard. Of course, it has its only campus outside the United Kingdom here in Adelaide. UCL obviously has a very important link with India because Mahatma Gandhi was one of its students.

Last year I wrote to about 4,500 Indian students in Adelaide to highlight my personal commitment to them and to provide information about support networks available during their stay. This government also established a task force last year to look at how to provide the best education and lifestyle experience for international students while here. While on this topic I want to inform the house that South Australia has led work at a national level to improve the experience of international students, overseeing the development of the International Student Strategy for Australia 2010-14 initiated through COAG.

On the way to India I made my first official visit to Singapore where I met with the Singapore Economic Development Board to engage in very positive discussions about our two-way trade with Singapore which, according to the latest figures in 2008-09, was worth more than $1.2 billion. I met with a number of senior members of the government, including the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence who showed a keen interest in the capabilities of the common user facility at Techport Australia where Australia's largest ever defence project, our air warfare destroyers project, is being built.

In my meetings with representatives of Singapore's business community I was delighted to find strong interest in what South Australia has to offer in education, tourism, food and wine, defence technologies, resources, engineering and advanced manufacturing and, increasingly, clean technologies and opportunities from development of Tonsley Park as a sustainable industries precinct.

The South Australian government has its India representative office in Chennai. Indeed, we are the only Australian state with a trade office in the state of Tamil Nadu which has a population of more than 66 million and is the fifth largest contributor to India's GDP. In Chennai I met with the MARG Construction group and other significant corporations operating on the Indian subcontinent. The MARG group has interests in ports, ship repairs and airports, and I was able to reinforce business opportunities, showcase our own industry capabilities and explain what is happening in this state in mining and resources.

As a result of previous meetings with the Confederation of Indian Industry in Chennai, I was pleased to see that its Water Institute has selected South Australia as its International Partner of Choice and witnessed the signing of an MOU with the South Australian Water Industry Alliance, which I am told includes around 250 South Australian companies. This will encourage cooperation in water consulting, technology transfer and education research. India's rapidly increasing water industry has created an opportunity to grow our exports into this market in terms of irrigation, environment and water technology.

I also hosted a South Australian wine reception and state dinner that showcased not only our wines but our economic achievements, investment potential and education of our foreign students to businesspeople, government officials and media. This further reinforced the strong bilateral relationship between South Australia and Tamil Nadu. Meetings in Mumbai included Deepak Fertilisers and Petrochemicals Corporation, who are visiting South Australia this week, the Australia and New Zealand Business Association in India, a CEO lunch with top industrialists and government officials, and a networking dinner co-hosted by the World Trade Centre and all India Association of Industries.

In Delhi we were involved in helping a group of South Australian high-technology companies promote their business interests, particularly pitched at India's transport and defence industries. Those seeking to establish themselves in the Indian market include Prism Defence, which produces helicopter landing guidance systems here in South Australia; Daronmont Technologies, developers of coastal radar systems; and Lockheed Martin Australia, which is promoting its over the horizon radar systems to the Indian Air Force.

One very well-known South Australian company who joined us was Codan, which has sold their high-frequency radio systems to border patrols and police forces in India. While in the Punjab, I met with senior representatives of the Chamber of Commerce to introduce our state and its numerous investment opportunities and cultural ties with India.

In the year to July 2010, South Australian businesses increased their exports to India by 120 per cent to nearly $600 million. Our growth in exports to India is growing faster than anyone had predicted and has the potential to keep growing at this rate for many years to come, but it will not happen by chance.

It is very important that governments of all persuasions—as the former Liberal government did in China following John Bannon's opening up of relations with Shandong—be involved in trade missions to India each year to keep the momentum going and to ensure that as many businesses and industries in South Australia as possible realise the potential of this surging economy and the great partnerships that we can forge over the coming decades. I am told that members opposite have been in China recently on a delegation with members on this side of the house.

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