Australia - Profile & Facts

Name :
Commonwealth Of Australia

Head of State :
Queen Elizabeth II

Governor General :
Micheal Jeffery

Prime Minister :
John Howard

Geographical Location:
Latitude - 10^o 41' South and 43^o 39' South
Latitude - 113^o 09' East and 153^o 39' East

Total Land Area:
7,692,030 Sq. Km. ( 61% agriculture, 5% forests ) 39% of the area is in the tropics

Climate:
January is the hottest month, Summer from December to February, Autumn from March to May, Winter from June to August, Spring from September to November - Conditions vary according to geographic locations within the vast continent, from tropical to temperate climate.

Population:
20 million

Capital and Major Cities:
Canberra (Capital)        Adelaide
Sydney                             Perth
Melbourne                       Hobart
Brisbane                          Darwin

Language:
English (National language) other leading five community languages - Italian, Greek, Cantonese, Arabian, Lebanese.

Ethnic Group(s):
UK & Ireland, New Zealand, Italy, Yugoslav, Vietnam, Greece (in that order).

Religion (s):
Christian (76%), Buddhist (1.9%), Muslim (1.5%), unspecified (18%), others (1.2%).

Measures:
Metric System

Transport & Communications:
Efficient Air, Road and Rail transport services operate throughout Australia.

Government:
Federal parliamentary democracy with two Houses of Parliament. Australia comprises six States and two territories on its mainland. They are New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia and the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory.

Economy (General):
Australia's economy is predominantly dependent on primary products. Its main produces and exports are coal, iron ore, minerals, wool and farm products.

Fiscal Year : July 1^st- June 30^th

Largest Trading (Bilateral) Partners : Japan, USA, China, Rep. of Korea, New Zealand, UK, Singapore, Taiwan, Germany and Indonesia.

Major Export Products:
Coal, Crude Petroleum, Non-monetary gold, Iron ore, Aluminium.

Main Export Destinations:
Japan, United States, Republic of Korea, China, New Zealand.

Major Import products:
Passenger motor vehicles, Aircraft and parts, Computers and Medicaments.

Main Import Sources:
United States, Japan, China, Germany, United Kingdom

Currency:
Australian Dollar (A$)

Import Quotas:
There are no import quotas. Import duties are calculated on FOB price. Most duties have been reduced to 5% with preferential rates for developing countries.

Time difference:
Perth (Western Australia) - IST + 2.5 hrs; Adelaide (South Australia) - IST + 4 hrs; Brisbane (Queensland), Sydney (New South Wales), Canberra (ACT), Melbourne (Victoria) & Hobart (Tasmania) - IST + 4.5. hrs.

Except for Western Australia and Queensland, there will be an additional one hour difference during summer for other cities (States).

Economy

Australia has a private enterprise economy. Public utilities like telecommunications, power, airports and railways, now in Government hands, are gradually under the process of privatization. The Federal Government exercises control over the oil exploration and development - licensing and excise policies.

The largest telecommunications carrier 'Telstra', which was owned by the Government, was partially sold in 2000. Roads are funded and owned by the government but construction is contracted out to private companies. Railways interstate are owned and operated by the state governments. Exploration and development of coal resources are controlled by the state governments, who issue licences and collect royalties on production.

The economy is predominantly dependent on primary products. The economic activity is focused on Australia's Eastern Seaboard where majority of the population lives. The major Eastern States, New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland account for 34%, 26% and 16% of the GDP respectively.

Australia has substantial reserves of important minerals. It is the world's largest supplier of coal and a major supplier of bauxite, iron ore, lead and zinc and other minerals. It also has significant deposits of nickel, copper, gold, silver, uranium, diamonds and tungsten. It has huge reserves of crude oil. The country is also a natural gas exporter.

Australia is the world's largest wool producing country, wheat is Australia's largest crop, and largest exporter of sugar, largest exporter of meat - beef and veal, including livestock, construction, communications, machinery and manufacture other industries in the country.

Australian Investments in India

The total value of Australian investments in India during the period August 1991 to August 2004 was Rs. 68437.1 million or A$ 2138.7 Million (A$ 1 = Rs. 32.01). This accounted for 2.34%of the total approved investments in India from all countries. The number of Australian joint ventures in India approved during the period August 1991 to 2004 was 512. Of these, 332 collaborations were financial and 180 technical.

According to the accumulated total of approvals up to August 2004, Australia ranked as the 8^th largest source of foreign investments in India.

Australian Companies in India
Some of the major Australian companies which have presence in India include Telstra (telecommunications); BHP Billiton (mining); Rio Tinto (mining); MIM Holdings (mining); BlueScope Steel ( steel manufactures); Snowy Mountains Engineering Corporation (infrastructure development); Argyle diamonds (technical support office for diamond sales); P&O (development of container ports); Clough Engineering (port development and oil and natural gas); AMP (insurance sector in association with Sanmar Group); Orica Limited (joint venture with Imperial Chemical Industries); Lucent Technologies (IT); ANZ (IT); Foster's (brewery); Boral Ltd; Quantas (Airlines); TNT Express (courier services); Village Roadshow (entertainment); Cookie Man (biscuits); Faber Castell (Stationary Products); Narrowcasters (simultaneous interpretation in Museums in Mumbai, Delhi and Jodhpur); Mayne Group (pharma); Sigma (pharma) among others.

The Commonwealth Bank's investment and fund management arm, the Commonwealth Securities launched a 'Capital India Fund' in June 2004.

Opportunities
Potential for Indo-Australian cooperation exists in information technology; biotechnology, both plant and human; drugs and pharmaceuticals; infrastructure development including roads, ports, airports and railways; power sector; mining; oil and natural gas including LNG; water management, soil conservation and waste disposal; food processing and agribusiness; film and television; processing of gems and jewellery; tourism; and education.

The trend in bilateral trade over the past five calendar years is given below:

                                                                                                                                                         Australian Dollars (A$) million

Year 2000 - 01 2001 - 02 2002 - 03 2003 - 04 2004 - 05

Total Indian Imports 2086.5 2523.6 2576.3 4865.2 6049.2

Total Indian Exports 754.0 873.7 978.8 999.7 1219.7

Bilateral Trade 2840.5 3397.3 3555.1 5864.9 7268.9

Trade Balance -1332.5 -1650.0 -1597.4 -3865.5 -4829.5

The top ten commodities forming India's exports to Australia in 2004 and the top ten Australian exports to India in 2004 are given in the table below:


Indian Exports 2004 - 05 (A$ million)

Site Commodity 2003 - 04 2004 - 05

667
Pearls, precious and semi-precious stones
79.2 87.8

659 Floor coverings, carpets and rugs 31.5 40.3

897 Jewellery and other articles precious or semi-precious 25.3 39.6

36 Crustaceans, molluscs 35.5 33.0

658 Made-up articles - textiles 50.5 55.8

Indian Imports 2004 - 05 (A$ million)

Site Commodity 2003 - 04 2004 - 05

971 Non-monetary gold 2670.6 2773.1

321 Coal 949.6 1640.3

283 Copper ores 315.3 464.3

268 Wool 154.1 154.2

282 Ferrous waste and scrap 21.6 42.3

                                                                                                      (Courtesy : Consulate General of India in Sydney)

Australia - India Trade Links

Trade links between Australia and India go back to the days of the British East India Company. In fact, Australia's first commercial export to India was shipment of coal in 1801. Trade relations have changed dramatically since then. Total trade between the two countries almost trebled from US $ 1464 mn in FY01 to US $ 4257 mn in FY05, registering a CAGR of 31%. Bilateral trade is, however, heavily skewed in favour of Australia with India's imports from the country amounting to US $ 3568 mn in FY05. While India's exports to the country are widely distributed, comprising gems and jewellery, manufactures of metal, machinery and instruments and cotton yarn and fabrics, imports are dominated by gold (48% of total imports) and coal, coke and briquettes (30%). There exists a huge potential for India to increase exports, considering that Australia is the world's nineteenth largest import market. Opportunities also exist in two-way flow of investments, which have also seen significant improvements. Investment inflows from Australia amounted to US $ 19 mn in 2004 with cumulative investments aggregating US $ 151 mn during Aug 1991 to June 2005. On other hand, India's overseas investments (approved) in Australia aggregated US $ 334 mn during April 1996 and November 2004. In fact, during FY05 (Apr - Nov), Australia was the third largest destination for Indian overseas investment (US $ 139 mn) with major investments in software and mining sectors.

Australia's Traditional Industries

Australia is one of the world's largest exporters of beef. The value of Australia's beef and veal exports totaled $3.8 billion in 2003 - 04.
Australia is the world's third-largest exporter of diary products. In 2003 - 04, Australia's exports of dairy products were valued at $2.2. billion.
Australia is the world's largest wool producer and exporter. In 2003 - 04, Australia's shorn wool production was 475 000 tonnes and wool exports were valued at nearly $2.8 billion.
The major grains and oilseeds produces in Australia include wheat, barley, canola, oats and sorghum. Australia is the world's second largest wheat exporter and exported 15.2 million tonnes of wheat in 2003 - 04.
Australia's key cotton export markets include China, Japan, the Republic of Korea and Thailand. Australia's raw cotton exports in 2003 - 04 were valued at just under $1 billion.
Sugar is one of Australia's major exported crops with exports of around 4 million tonnes in 2003 - 04, worth around $1 billion.
In 2003 - 04, the gross value of horticulture production was around $6 billion. Major horticultural products include fruits and nuts, vegetables, table grapes, dries vine fruits and nursery products.
Australian fisheries operate in one of the world's cleanest environments. Seafood production in 2003 - 04 was around 267 000 tonnes, valued at about $2.1 billion.
In 2000 - 01, the value of turnover of Australia's forest products was about $15 billion. Australia's native forest area is around 163 million hectares and around 13 per cent of this is classified as conservation reserve.
The Australian food industry had an annual turn over of over $65 billion in 2002 - 03 and accounted for 46 per cent of total retailing turnover in that year.

(Courtesy: 'Australia in brief', published by Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australian Government)

ALL THAT GLITTERS

There is a glittering side to India's trade with Australia, and it literally comes from gold.

India and Indians have an unsatiated thirst for gold. In 2004 - 05, India imported an incredible $10 billion worth of gold and bullion, and is the second most expensive item on India's Import Bill next only to crude oil.

Where does all these gold come from? Almost 25% from Australia. Last year, gold occupied the topmost position in India's import from Australia, pushing coal, which dominated the trade for several decades to a distant second. A$ 2.87 billion worth of gold is against only A$ 1.18 billion of coal.

Western Australia is the biggest producer of the 'Yellow metal' and Perth is regarded as Australia's "gold capital". Today, more than 100 years after its opening, the Perth Mint continues to function. The Mint also has the distinction of having produced the purest gold ever by the Royal Mint and find acceptance anywhere in the world. The Mint Stamp guarantees both the weight and the purity of the metal. To the investor, gold is available in medallion like ingots containing as little as half an ounce of gold, up to bar of 400 ounces worth about A$ 200, 000 each.

Notwithstanding its glitter, gold trade between India and Australia presents a paradox. In conventional economic thinking, income flows from rich countries to poor ones, while in this case income from a relatively underdeveloped country like India flows to a rich country like Australia. That is putting economic theory upside down.

AUSTRALIA - SOME FACTS

The IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook for 2004 ranked Australia the fourth most competitive economy in the world, up from seventh place in 2003 and tenth place in 2002.
Australia ranked third in the United Nations' Human Development Index for 2004. This index measures a country's achievements in terms of life expectancy, educational attainment and adjusted real income.
Almost one in four of Australia's population of over 20 million was born overseas, and 43 per cent have one or both parents born overseas.
Australia provides technical assistance and capacity-building programs to developing countries to strengthen their ability to participate in trade negotiations and facilitate trade liberalization. Australia has made multi-year commitments of approximately $275 million in direct trade-related assistance to developing countries, including an estimated $32 million in 2004 - 05
Australia is home to citizens from some 200 countries, making it the most multilingual workforce in the Asia Pacific region. More than 4.1million Australians speak a second language, including 3 million who speak a language other than English at home.
Australia jumped from 19^th to 7^th most attractive investment location in the world in 2004 in AT Kearney's Foreign Direct Investment Confidence Index. According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development's World Investment Report 2004, Australia, by attracting US $ 8 billion in foreign investment in 2003, ranked among the top four countries in the Asia Pacific region, ahead of other major countries in the region, including Japan and the Republic of Korea.
For 2004 - 05, the Australian Government has provided or committed approximately $170 million in sports funding.

(Courtesy: 'Australia in Brief', published by Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australian Government)

The Australian Call Centre Industry and Indian Opportunity

With over 1200 Call Centres and 60,000 Work Stations, Australia has a commanding position in the Call Centre Industry. For a long time, Australia was the "chosen country" for U.S. based business houses to service their customers in the Asia Pacific region. Every big name in Corporate ambience was there - Hewlett Packard, IBM, American Express, Nowell, Oracle, Radisson Hotels, Fujitsu and many others.

Today, however, the situation has changed. With escalating costs and facing shortage of skilled manpower, Australian Call Centres are facing a crisis. This is an opportunity India should seize at a time where our Call Centres are on an upswing. However, the best strategy for Indian service providers to attract Australian Call Centre operators to India is by a collaboration strategy, which will mean Australian Call Centres can continue operations. How is this possible? A unique resource that connects India with Australia is our time zone. Much of Australia is ahead of India by 4-1/2 hours. That means while India is working Australia is "sleeping" and as Australia wakes up India is "sleeping". What this means is that if Indian and Australian Call Centres come together, they together can serve the whole world 24 x 7. This unique advantage no other two large countries may have. What does this mean in terms of costs? The joint venture will bring costs down by at least 30% compared to what the Australian Call Centre operations cost now. Moreover, India can provide ample skilled professionals to man the Call Centre and Australia can help the Indian Call Centres to upgrade their standards, give better training to their manpower and even more importantly offer far better global market access.

In short, Australia's technology and marketing skills combined with India's cost effective manpower could be a formidable combination to reach out to the whole of Asia Pacific and beyond.

Sydney and Chennai

Sydney and Chennai have many things in common. The two cities have a comparable population of around 4 million each.

The two are powerhouses of economic growth for their respective regions - New South Wales in Australia and Tamilnadu in India. Both Sydney and Chennai combine a bustling commercial profile with a leisurely feel of art, dance and music. Sydney's Opera House is world renowned, so are Chennai's Kalakshetra and the Sabhas and music halls. The two cities have strong intellectual traditions and are today great centres of learning and flourishing IT industries.

The difference between the two cities lie in the way they are managed. Sydney is the dream of any urban planner. Its streets and avenues are broad, neat and elegant; traffic orderly and its environment well preserved. With a comparable population, Chennai can look up to Sydney to emerge as a world class city. Sydney offers a few lessons. Increased use of technology and a stricter enforcement of rules and regulations on the city's most vulnerable dynamics - construction of good roads and a more efficient spread of services like water, electricity, sanitation and garbage clearance can change the face of Chennai. Can we start with just one simple measure? Take a pledge not to deface the city walls with posters and writing.