Australia Invites India To Invest In Energy, Mining

Australia sought Indian investment in energy and mining and assured India of providing the latest technology in mining and mineral exploration.

Ian Macfarlane, the visiting Australian Minister for Industry, Tourism and Resources, said that trade in energy and resources were the drivers of the bilateral economic relationship.

Macfarlane also said that Australia would participate in the International Mining and Machinery Exhibition to be held in Kolkata, as a partner country with a strong contingent of 40 leading organizations. This would also be the largest mining event that the Australian Government would be taking part in this year.

Australian companies exhibiting at IMME 2006 reflect the country’s role as a world leader in the export of mining and technology services, he said. The Minister also expressed that Australia’s exports of mining equipment were estimated to have exceeded $1.8 billion last fiscal and are likely to grow to over $4.5 billion by 2010.

Later, Macfarlane met the Petroleum Minister, Murli Deora, and invited Indian companies to take part in exploration of natural gas and coal-bed methane. He said that both countries could work together in development of natural gas and its technology, adding that the market for LNG would be tight over the next couple of years and expected the situation to ease once new capacities come on stream in 2011-12.