Kolkata, June 6 Australian High Commissioner in India Patrick Sucking on Friday said his country is looking at the energy, food, education and infrastructure sectors in India for collaboration and investment projects.
“Energy is a strategic issue for India… India can’t, within its own borders provide all of its energy security. It seems to us that India is looking at Australia as the key partner in terms of its future energy security,” he said at an event organised by MCC Chamber of Commerce and Industry here.
He said one of the key elements of Indian foreign policy is ensuring its energy security and Australia can strategically help India with its requirements in coal, gas, steel, uranium and others.
Suckling said that with the present Indian government trying to modernise the agricultural sector, opportunities for technological collaborations and investment are there ranging from cold storages to agricultural technology.
The island continent has lately attracted huge amount of Chinese investments to step up its agriculture which is expected to grow in vast proportion in the coming decades.
Noting his country is promoting organic products, Suckling said: “The Chinese have a very big appetite for Australian agricultural products.”
On the growing pace of industrialisation in India, he said more and more people are moving out of the agricultural sector towards the industrial sector.
With the growing trend towards industrialisation, India will soon require to skill up 500 million people by 2022 and his country can help India address its skilling needs, he said.
“Unless that happens, India’s demographic dividend could become a demographic nightmare. India cannot train these people on its own in the next seven years so it is looking to partner with trainers and universities,” said the high commissioner on the need to skill up the Indian workforce.
Suckling said besides these three sectors of opportunities for Indo-Australian collaboration, infrastructure segment is also an area of focus for him.