Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Australian firms eyeing Tier II cities in the State

CHENNAI: Australian business missions could soon be sizing up Tamil Nadu’s Tier II cities, which are widely seen as growth drivers. At least three of the 24 Tier II cities earmarked across India for their business potential by the Australian Trade Commission are in Tamil Nadu.

The Commission will shortly launch a series of meetings themed “Doing Business with Australia” in Coimbatore, Puducherry and Madurai.

Mangalore and Mysore in Karnataka, Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands are among the Tier II business destinations identified in south India.

The Commission plans to give visiting Australian business delegations a lowdown on the competitive advantages of Tier II cities, ranging from land availability and skilled manpower to lower overall operational costs.

The outlines of the strategy were laid down on the high table during a recent visit by a high-profile business delegation from Australia led by Stephen Manallack, secretary, Australia-India Business Council.

Aminur Rahman, Australian Consul General for South India, Chennai, told the delegation that the southern States were key investment destinations, accounting for a sizeable chunk of foreign trade and investment in India.

He pointed out that already two of the largest Australian business operations in India were centred in Chennai and Bangalore.

At the same time, the larger vision of scaling up bilateral trade and investment to potential required looking beyond the major cities and foraying into Tier II towns, Mr. Rahman said.

In fact, the Australian Trade Commission and the Indo-Australian Chamber of Commerce are working towards broadening the Australian entrepreneurial vision.

Mohamed Adil, business development manager for the Commission, said the primary aim was to guide an Australian investor’s thought processes into considering a Tier II city as a place where he could bring incutting edge technology and expertise.

“We are aware that smaller cities could face infrastructure limitations…but there is no denying that they are growth-bound in the medium term. Coimbatore, for instance, is giving shape to a master plan. The basic idea is that the Australian business community is geared to step in as and when these new markets emerge from the shadows of the bigger cities,” Mr. Adil said.

The Tier II hardsell will be specific to the inherent strengths of a place. For instance, Coimbatore will be assessed for its strengths in IT backend skills, machine tooling and automotive expertise. However, the common factor in a fairly diverse Tier II portfolio is education, which is booming alike in Coimbatore, Puducherry and Madurai.

The higher education of foreign students is an important prop for Australia’s economy. The Indian student contingent in Australia—the second largest foreign student community—is consistently growing over the past few years.

Last year alone saw student enrolments aggregate 72,000 candidates resulting in the infusion of an estimated 2 billion Australian dollars into the economy.

The growth in the number of Indians seeking higher education clocked 49 per cent last year and the trend was expected to strengthen in the years ahead, officials said.

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu