Tamil Nadu

South Australia turns to Tamil Nadu’s talent pool

— Photo: R. Shivaji Rao

SCOUTING FOR TALENT: Mike Rann, Premier of South Australia (left), at a meeting organised by the South Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Chennai on Monday. Others in the picture are David Hopper, U.S. Consul-General; M. Balasubramanian, president, SICCI; Jawahar Vadivelu, vice-president; and Brian Hayes, national chairman, Australia-India Business Council.

CHENNAI: The Government of South Australia is turning to Tamil Nadu’s industries and talent pool to help make the most of its current economic boom.

The Australian state is witnessing a spurt of growth, built on a thriving trillion-dollar mining industry, but it lacks the manpower to make the most of its wealth of natural resources.

A delegation from the state, led by Premier Mike Rann, is on a three-day visit to Chennai, engaging with local businesses and educational institutions to woo the best of Tamil Nadu’s talent. “We see Chennai and Tamil Nadu as the next wave of prosperity and progress in India,” Mr. Rann said on Monday, addressing members of the Southern India Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SICCI). “We regard our relationship with Tamil Nadu very seriously. We have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Tamil Nadu for a sister-state relationship, and unlike other state governments that choose cities like New Delhi and Mumbai, we particularly chose Chennai.”

Mr. Rann said South Australia’s mining industry offered Indian firms a plenty of investment opportunities. Home to 40 per cent of the world’s uranium deposits, the State also had the third biggest copper deposits and fifth biggest gold deposits in the world. The Olympic Dam mine project alone had a trillion-dollar resource base, and was the largest mine in the world.

“South Australia is on the verge of a giant mining boom,” Mr. Rann said. “There is a growing alliance between India, with its need for resources, and South Australia, with its ten-fold increase in mining exploration in the last four years.”

Mr. Rann said Tamil Nadu had a lot to offer to the State with its pool of talent in the information technology sector. “IT has a crucial role to play in developing the mining industry,” he said. “A big slice of jobs from the mining boom will come from the information and communications technology sector. We are under-populated, and we are unashamedly here not just to recruit students but to get people to see South Australia as a part of their lives.”

The South Australian government is also inviting Indian private companies to tie up with both local firms and the government. Reliance Industries has already formed a partnership with Santos, an oil and gas exploration company and a major uranium industry explorer and miner.

Those part of Mr. Rann’s delegation are Vice-Chancellors of four Adelaide universities. The universities are looking to build on their alliance with local universities such as Anna University and the University of Madras. Flinders University has a research alliance with the University of Madras. On Monday, the University of South Australia signed an agreement with PSG College, Coimbatore, for pilot training.

M. Balasubramanian, president, SICCI, said that while the scope for expanding trade between the two States was “immense,” an exchange of visits by businessmen was also needed.

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