IGI Logo

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has said that India and Australia should look at boosting the bilateral trade to $100 billion by 2030 from the current level of around $27.5 billion. He said that both the countries are already at an advanced stage of entering into an agreement for greater collaboration in the education sector. On April 2, India and Australia signed the Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (IndAus ECTA) under which both the countries are providing duty-free access to a huge number of goods and relaxing norms to promote trade in services.

He said ‘I would suggest that our teams should drill down sector by sector to see how we are going to grow this relationship... Let's be more ambitious, let's look at $100 billion engagement by 2030... So, we are looking at quadrupling this relationship in eight years.’ Both the countries are also looking at things like providing dual degrees and signing mutual recognition agreements to promote services trade.

Moreover, he said that areas where both the countries can increase collaboration include education, research, startups and agri tech. he also sought investments from Australia in areas like infrastructure. He asserted ‘We have a big market and people aspire for a better quality of life. This gives a huge opportunity for India and people around the world. Besides, he added that Australia has a huge investible surplus.