During his visit, Mr Jaitley met Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg,Treasurer Scott Morrison, Finance Minister Mathias Cormann and several other top dignitaries and business leaders of the country.
On his first day in Sydney, Mr Jaitley inaugurated the ‘Make in India’ conference where he strongly pitched for foreign investments in India, especially in the area of manufacturing and infrastructure.
In Canberra, he met Mr Turnbull and discussed trade and bilateral issues of the two nations. He also invited Mr Turnbull to visit India. Here, the finance minister also attended a special reception organised by the Indian High Commission where he met a large group of Indian diaspora from across the country.
In Melbourne, the finance minister met a high-powered delegation of Australia’s superannuation funds and other investors along with FICCI delegation where he urged them to invest in India’s infrastructure projects and other manufacturing sectors.
He assured them that India’s economic story was all set to stay on growth path and that the government was strongly focusing on the ‘ease of doing business’ by rationalising the tax system and other processes and policies.
Mr Jaitley, while attending a special dinner on Friday night organised by Victorian politician Tim Pallas, called the Indo-Australian relations “evolving and growing” strongly.
“It’s not only sports where the relations are evolving but also in business, culture, politics, and strategic relationships, which all determine our future destinies,” Mr Jaitley said, adding that the two sides were natural allies.
He also raised the topic of free trade agreement which he said had passed the set deadline of last December while stating that “the more we cooperate, the more we coordinate, the better it is for both the countries as a win win situation”.
Greater Pacific Capital CEO Ketan Patel, who was accompanying the finance minister as a part of the FICCI delegation, said Mr Jaitley’s visit to Australia would galvanize the relationship of the two sides.
Mr Patel said the Australian investors were mainly worried about the history of India as a difficult destination to do business with.
