Possibilities endless for promoting Indo-Australian business ties: Rudd (Part- 1)
New Delhi, Nov.12 : Placing emphasis on the central role that business plays in elevating bilateral partnerships between two countries, visiting Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on Thursday told captains of Indian industry at the Taj Mahal Hotel here that both Australia and India share common commercial interests.
Business partnerships, he said demonstrate the power of entrepreneurialism, and added that when commercial vision is joined with complementary capacity, the possibilities are endless.
The same is true of the Australian-Indian economic relationship as a whole. In the past 18 months, businessmen and women around the world have together faced the worst financial collapse in three quarters of a century. We all know the figures the global economy is forecast to contract by 1.1 per cent in 2009 the first contraction since IMF records began, he said.
Describing the current global recession as the deepest in three-quarters of a century, Rudd said that the one startling fact that had become apparent:, was that our economies are more interconnected and interdependent now than ever before.
Our coordinated response to the global economic crisis driven by the G20 in which Australia and India are active has highlighted the benefits of cooperation. It reminds us that global solutions to crises are through collective determination and action rather than insular policies. It has provided the strongest signal yet that the global economy has entered a new - though fragile - phase of recovery, he added.
Admitting that there was tentative talk of recovery, he said total recovery was still a long way off, and would be both slow and complex.
Global economic activity, driven by the strong performance of Asian economies such as India and China, still remains below pre-crisis levels. Private consumption and investment are needed to sustain this recovery. This requires a smooth transition from government-supported demand to private-led demand. We also need to unwind the global imbalances that led us into this crisis. My message to the global community is simple: were all in this together, and were all in this for the long haul, Rudd said.
Revealing what Australia has to offer, Rudd listed the following:
Strong fundamentals;
A stable, prosperous economy; and
An ongoing economic policy reform agenda.
Like India, the Australian economy has weathered the global recession better than most:
our economy grew in the June quarter at 0.6 per cent, making it the fastest-growing advanced economy in the past year and the only advanced economy to have reported positive through-the-year growth to June 2009; and
while every Major Advanced Economy has fallen into recession, Australia so far has not.
But still, as the slight rise in our unemployment rate to 5.8 per cent today underlines, Australia is by no means out of the woods, yet as we still face such a fundamentally uncertain global economic outlook.
Australia is a significant economy.
We are the 14th largest economy in the world.
By market exchange rates, Australia is the fourth largest economy in Asia - after Japan, China and India, and the fourteenth largest in the world.
We have the second lowest unemployment rate when compared with the Major Advanced Economies.
Our public finances are sound, with Standard and Poors reaffirming our AAA sovereign rating.
Copyright Asian News International (ANI)
