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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-11-28 Daily Xml
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India Trade Mission

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL (Mawson) (15:53): My question is to the Minister for Trade and Investment. Can the minister update the house on any outcomes from the recent bipartisan trade mission to India?

The Hon. V.A. Tarzia: Didn't he take you?

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL: I was in Mexico, mate.

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. N.D. CHAMPION (Taylor—Minister for Trade and Investment, Minister for Housing and Urban Development, Minister for Planning) (15:53): I thank the member for Mawson for his question and his great interest in our international trade missions, which of course seek to expand our global networks and build on our existing relationships. Last week, I embarked on an international mission to India, the first mission by a South Australian minister since 2017 and the first since the signing of the Australia-India Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement.

Importantly, it was a bipartisan mission, and I was accompanied by the member for Chaffey, and my shadow minister, which I think was a pleasant surprise to both Australian and Indian companies and to government officials. I think the government officials, in particular, found it a unique feature of South Australia's very gentlemanly and citizen-based politics that we had a team South Australia approach to trade.

India is the world's largest democracy, with 1.4 billion people, a growing geopolitical and economic power in the world, and the growth that we have seen India have means that it is now the world's fifth largest economy with the Modi government targeting a $5 trillion economy by 2024-25. We have already seen the benefits of their AI-ECTA, which is the opening of the export market valued at over $24 billion when it came into effect last year on the 75th year of Australian-Indian relations.

The trip began in the silicon valley of India, Bengaluru, a city boasting a huge technological workforce: 25,000 IT companies, a substantial annual foreign direct investment of around $5 billion to $6 billion. I attended meetings with Ather Energy, Wipro, Big Basket and the Minister for Commerce and Industries in the government of Karnataka, Dr Patil. The delegation also attended a StudyAdelaide event. India is our state's largest source of international students, with the student cohort growing 36 per cent over the last year to 14,000 enrolments.

On the last day of our stay in Bengaluru, we hosted a tech roundtable event, which saw the announcement of a partnership between Astrogate Labs and Hex20, allowing for high-speed intersatellite data transmission. That is an example of the growing opportunities for the space industry between the two nations.

The second part of the mission was in the commercial and industrial centre of India, in Mumbai. At that time, we announced a new dedicated permanent country director for India based in Mumbai. This will help the South Australian government focus on even greater opportunities for our commerce and engagement with India. We think it is really important to have that dedicated opportunity. Of course, wine figured prominently, as it always does, in all of this.

The Hon. L.W.K. Bignell: Hear, hear!

The Hon. N.D. CHAMPION: The member for Mawson will be proud to hear that we had both Wirra Wirra and Metala receive contracts from their presence at ProWine Mumbai last year. We announced at ProWine Mumbai this year, an event held by the Department for Trade and Investment, two new ambassadors and a new chapter of the South Australian Wine Ambassador's Program. Pritish Matai and Nikhil Agarwal are two new ambassadors who will help champion our wine industry in India. As I said, we attended the launch of ProWine Mumbai. We had a wine masterclass event. It is no surprise that two South Australian brands received best in show awards. Metala and, of course, Penfolds both won awards for their wine.

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