Category Business and Trade

Australia bets on Indians to triple tourism revenue

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Gold Coast Photo Credit: © Neena Bhandari

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 14.10.2011 (Business Standard): Tourist arrivals declined by 6% in Australia after attacks on Indian students. Australia is luring high-spending Indian visitors to triple its tourism revenue from AU$820 million to AU$2.3 billion by 2020.

Australia’s image as a welcoming country suffered a setback following attacks on Indian students in Melbourne and Sydney, and subsequently tourist arrivals declined by six per cent to 17,565 in 2010. However, Tourism Australia is now determined to bring back Indian tourists to its shores.

Tourism Australia’s 2020 India Strategic Plan launched today at the annual Australian Tourism Directions Conference in Canberra aims to triple the growth of inbound Indian travellers, including students, from around 145,000 to 400,000 in the next 10 years.

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Indian firms line up for coal mining joint ventures in Australia

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By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 8.10.2011 (Business Standard): High quality coal, good infrastructure, political stability and the ease of doing business has made Australia the preferred coal supplier for India, with many Indian private companies acquiring mines and setting up joint ventures to tap into the continent’s vast reserves.

“With large high-quality reserves of all coal types, Indian investment is a valuable component in the rapidly expanding Australian coal industry,” Arun Kumar Jagatramka, chairman and managing director of Gujarat NRE Coke, told this correspondent.

Gujarat NRE Coke owns and operates two hard-coking coal mines in New South Wales. It produces 1.5 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of coking coal and plans to increase it to around six mtpa by 2015. This would make the company one of the top 10 hard-coking coal producers in the world. “With rising demand for coal of all forms and the emerging supply challenges of Indonesia, India should continue to seek opportunities in Australia”, says Jagatramka.

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Punjab National Bank opens office in Sydney

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By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 17.09.2011 (IANS): Punjab National Bank (PNB), the second largest government-owned bank in India, opened a representative office in the heart of the central business district here on Thursday, becoming the fourth Indian bank to establish a presence in Australia.

“We are hoping to get regulatory approval from authorities in both countries to upgrade this representative office into a full-fledged branch within a year,” said chairman and managing director K R Kamath.

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