Down Under In India

BEFORE it even began, the biggest ever business promotion of Australia in India has failed to achieve its objective. This was the verdict delivered at the Melbourne launch of New Horizons 1996, a cultural programme slated to take place in six Indian cities from October 22 till early December.

In the midst of champagne toasts, speeches and a three-course westernised tandoori meal, Shabbir Wahid, president of the Australia-India Chamber of Commerce, listed several disappointments at the outset, not the least being the decision of Prime Minister John Howard to skip the entire programme. "The fact that Mr Howard is not going to India is the biggest disaster of all. India라이브 바카라 response to the programme has been much bigger than Australia라이브 바카라...it is not enough for Australian business to be interested in India, it should be seen to receive government backing," said Wahid.

The decision, it is felt, may have been influenced by India라이브 바카라 refusal to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. The Indian promotion offers little cheer, unlike a similar promotion in Indonesia in 1994, when the then Australian prime minister, Paul Keating, was accompanied by journalists and 800 company representatives to Jakarta. In contrast, a little over 130 Australian companies are expected to attend the business events in India, while the leadership will be represented by Deputy Prime Minister, Tim Fischer. "We had hoped for an excess of 200 Australian businesses to have raised their hands...but there still appears to be a lack of understanding of India라이브 바카라 potential," mourns Wahid. He believes that it is not enough for the big corporations like Broken Hill Proprietary or BHP, ANZ, and RTZ-CRA, a mining company, to show interest. "The mass of Australian business needs to be motivated, and perhaps the time is just not right."

바카라 웹사이트However, others take a more positive view. The director of international projects at Price Waterhouse, and coordinating consultant of New Horizons, Antony Jeffrey, says the programme, which will travel to New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Chandigarh and Calcutta, will be a wonderful way of developing Australia라이브 바카라 image. "The problem with Australia is that it does not have a clear identity abroad. India particularly has an almost non-existent view of a modern, sophisticated, Australian society. They see us as cricketers and outdoors people in a big, brown land." The main aim of the promotion, Jeffrey believes, is to make contacts. He adds: "It will take a while for those contacts to start bearing fruit."

Jeffrey, who was also the consultant for Australia Today Indonesia ’94, says that a promotion like this is bound to achieve results. "The Indonesia project has resulted in an enormous amount of business—many times the amount of investment in it." Indonesian media published about 600 separate articles within three weeks, mostly in praise of the venture. But Jeffrey admits that much of that success was due to the presence of Paul Keating.

For the 1996 promotion, the choice lay between India and China, as two of the world라이브 바카라 largest countries. India was selected because commercial links between the two were less advanced, and with deregulation of the economy from 1991, the untapped market presented big opportunities for Australia. At present, two-way trade between Australia and India stands at about $1.5 billion (Aus), and is expected to double by the year 2000. Earlier in the year, Fischer told the local press that plans were afoot to facilitate business visas among APEC member countries. This would undoubtedly smooth some of the visa problems Indians encounter when trying to enter Australia—but only if India joins the group.

The 1996 promotion involves about 50 events, many of which are cultural and sporting, where concerns are more with immediate issues rather than long term goals. "The main things that worry me are jet lag and a change of diet," says Robin Laurie, director of Circus Oz, a unique performance group with an eclectic edge, scheduled to give three performances in New Delhi. Laurie describes Circus Oz as being part of a decolonisation movement of the 1960s when Australia was trying to find its voice. "We chose the circus form because it transcends language barriers. Our group also challenges authority, is quite satirical and possesses a uniquely laconic Australian sense of humour."바카라 웹사이트

While actors and artistes are immune to much of the nitty gritty, administrators have labelled the project a logistical nightmare that suffers from poor funding. Total funding ranges from $10 to $15 million (Aus), with government funding estimated at $6 million. "Let라이브 바카라 face it, we are not spending a lot of money...and when it is spread so thinly over six major Indian cities, it really comes to very little. This is a huge problem," states Jeffrey. One Australian businessman involved in the event has also complained that unlike the Indonesian promotion which was managed by the private sector, New Horizons has been appropriated by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Unsurprisingly, lack of expertise and bureaucratic inefficiency have been the result of government control, he said.

"We can only try and make the best of it," shrugs Wahid. "If we don’t, we have only ourselves to blame." And so this brainchild of the previous administration is going ahead, albeit, less than full steam.