Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott on Thursday said he wants to make most of the abundance of opportunities available for business in India though there is no dearth of it elsewhere in the vicinity of Australia.
“I am determined to make the most of them, I know all of you are determined to make the most of them and I look forward to working very closely with you and with our Indian interlocutors over the next two days,” he said while addressing a business delegation.
“This is a country which has amazed the world over the last few decades with its growth and its development - the world’s second most populous country; on purchasing power terms, the world’s third largest economy, clearly, the emerging democratic superpower of the world and a country with which Australia has long and warm ties. The purpose of this trip, as far as I am concerned, is to acknowledge the importance of India in the wider world, acknowledge the importance of India to Australia’s future, to let the Government and the people of India know what Australia has to offer India and the wider world for our part, and to build on those stronger foundations,” Abbott said.
He noted how India has changed since his last visit 33 years ago as a backpacker. “I can remember on my first day in Mumbai watching a bullock cart take material into a nuclear power station. Well, 33 years on, there aren’t that many bullock carts left in urban India, and the power stations - the nuclear power stations - are more sophisticated than ever,” he said.
later, Abbott met Sachin Tendulkar, Brett lee and Adam Gilchrist during a cricket coaching camp of children in Mumbai’s Cricket Club of India. The Aussie PM also joked that India and Australia shared a common passion: to beat England in cricket.A research MoU was signed between Indian Premier league franchise Kings XI Punjab and Australia’s la Trobe University (lTU) for working on mutually agreed topics like fan engagement, marketing and promotional practices, in the presence of the Australian PM.