Andhra Pradesh - Visakhapatnam

Vizag catches the eye of Aussie investors

VISAKHAPATNAM: Australian Trade Commission has said that it is impressed by developments in Andhra Pradesh and is looking for investments in mining, building, hospitality, education research and other sectors in and around Visakhapatnam.

“We want to explore various avenues for investments in tier-II cities like Visakhapatnam,” said Aminur Rahman, Australian Consul General for South India and Trade Commissioner. He was here on Monday to interact with business community as part of a seminar conducted by Confederation of Indian Industry (Southern Region) on `Doing business with Australia.”

The seminar showcased the potential business and trade opportunities with Australia in Visakhapatnam through joint ventures and investments. It also explained how Australian companies could do value addition jobs to Indian business ventures.

Later during an interaction with reporters, Mr. Rahman said Visakhapatnam was one of the fastest growing cities and had ample scope for investments in various areas. He said Australia had a bilateral business up to a volume of $ 11 billion and it raised investments from $ 2.2 billion last year to $ 4 billion during current year.

He said they were happy that they had partnered with CII and would look forward to send business delegations to the city based on feedback. On a question about Visakhapatnam Steel Plant’s efforts to acquire coalmines in Australia, he he declined to comment saying he was aware of the move.

CII Visakhapatnam zone vice-chairman K.V. Bhaskar said they were confident of investments and strategic partnerships in areas like mines, minerals, healthcare, research and development, higher education, entertainment and media, renewable energy. G.S. Siva Kumar of CII said it was an important step to open up potential areas of cooperation between Vizag and Australia.

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