Australia’s High Commissioner to India, Barry O’Farrell AO on Thursday met Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and expressed keen interest in strengthening collaboration with the State in Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Sports, Skill Development and Hospitality sector.
The High Commissioner met Khattar to deepen the existing cooperation between Australia and Haryana and to explore means to further build on this cooperation. Haryana Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Minister, Jai Parkash Dalal was also present during the meeting.
During the meeting, Barry O’Farrell AO discussed various issues of mutual cooperation between Australia and Haryana. Possibilities can be explored for sharing Australia’s expertise with Haryana in the field of food processing and sports particularly in Hockey and sports research for performance enhancement, he said.
The Chief Minister described Haryana as a leading state in sports, skilling and agriculture and sought cooperation of Australia in these areas. While inviting Australia to invest in Haryana, Khattar said that a dedicated new department namely Department of 'Foreign Cooperation’ has been setup by the State Government to act as nodal department for all foreign engagements related to promotion of trade, investment, education, Skill development, tourism and further strengthen diaspora engagement including promotion of Haryanavi culture.
“In last six years, Haryana has been put on the digitization track. From ramping up State Government’s exercise for the Ease of Doing Business (EODB), having a single-window clearance system for setting up new industries several efforts have been made to put Haryana on the world map. All these steps are going to act as a big game-changer for wooing investors in Haryana,” said the Chief Minister.
The Chief Minister also apprised Barry O’Farrell AO that for further strengthening the ties between people of Haryana and the State Government, an ambitious scheme Parivar Pehchan Patra (PPP) has been launched for digitizing the citizen records ensuring ease of delivery of public welfare schemes to the grassroots levels. He also urged the Australian High Commissioner to explore possibilities of organizing Youth Exchange Programme between Haryana and Australia for better cross-cultural understanding and in further strengthening bilateral relations.
Barry O’Farrell AO said Australia will also take steps to increase cooperation with Haryana in the Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Sports, Skill Development, Hospitality and Education sectors.
Those who were present in the meeting include, Chief Secretary, Vijai Vardhan, Chief Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, D. S. Dhesi, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, V. Umashankar, Principal Secretary, amongst other officials.