Room to grow: the Australia–India economic relationship

This resource shows the importance of ongoing development of economic ties between Australia and India. India is also only a modest destination for Australian outward investment, ranking as our 18th most popular investment destination and accounting for just 0.5 per cent of the total stock of Australian investment overseas as of end 2014, or A$9.8 billion. Of that total, about A$1.6 billion was FDI, which was equivalent to about 0.3 per cent of the stock of Australian outward FDI. By sector, financial services, coal, oil and gas, and metals have been among the most popular destinations for Australian money. Both the trade and investment numbers reviewed above suggest that – although we have seen an increase in two-way flows – there is scope to do more in terms of growing the weight of the relationship. Certainly, our own polling work indicates an appetite for engaging with India on the part of Australian business, although the same polling also shows that firms already involved with the market can find India achallenging place in which to do business. One potential source of deeper economic engagement would be completion of the negotiations on an Australia-India Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA), which were launched back in May 2011. CECA offers the prospect of stronger ties in goods and services trade and increased two-way investment, and could help reduce some of the existing barriers in these areas