Date:19/10/2004 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/10/19/stories/2004101915611200.htm

National

`Business leaders, professionals welcome to South Australia'

By T. Ramakrishnan

CHENNAI, OCT. 18. Business people, skilled persons, professionals and students will hereafter find it easier to migrate to Australia if they choose South Australia as their destination, according to the Premier of South Australia, Mike Rann.

"We are under-populated whereas Sydney is completely full up. So also are Melbourne and Brisbane. Because of our economic potential and growth rate in jobs, the Federal Government has agreed to relax visa conditions," Mr. Rann told The Hindu in an hour-long interview here today.

The Premier, who is here on the first leg of his visit that will cover Mumbai and Bangalore, said that one of the objectives of his trip was to encourage Indian students to pursue their education in three universities of his State — the University of South Australia, the University of Adelaide and the Flinders University.

His State had "outstanding universities," Mr. Rann said. The students would get "world-class education" at a lower cost than in any other part of Australia. Already, "we have seen a considerable rise in students from India in a number of disciplines over the past two-three years. Probably, the fastest growth is in students from India."

Asked about the strengths of the universities, he said that while the Adelaide University and the University of South Australia were strong in engineering and information technology, Adelaide and Flinders were reputed for medicine and law. This State had a strong multi-cultural community.

Mr. Rann referred to a survey conducted recently by KPMG, an American accounting and business advisory firm, and said that the study, which covered 98 cities in 11 industrialised countries around the world, found Adelaide, capital of South Australia, to be the "most competitive place" to do business in Australia and the third such place in the world.

"However, we are not resting on laurels. In May, we abolished some business taxes. We are in the process of continuous improvement. We intend to keep going with reform the agenda."

"We have the best industrial relation system. The record of industrial peace is massively better than other parts of Australia. It is much cheaper to do business at Adelaide than at Sydney. And, we have less bureaucracy, but more responsive," he said.

Mr. Rann who earlier met the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, at the Secretariat said, "We had a very good discussion because there are many similarities." Both his State and Tamil Nadu were strong in Information Technology, film industry and automobiles. Issues related to water were also discussed.

He received "enthusiastic responses" from his interaction with the local film industry and the Indo-Australian Chamber of Commerce. He would visit India every year to ensure closer ties between South Australia and various States in India.