Indo-Australia trade to double in five years: Australian High Commissioner

KOLKATA: The bilateral trade between India and Australia would double in the next five years, Australian High Commissioner in India Peter N Varghese said today.

"The present volume of bilateral trade between the two countries is $ 21 billion. It will double in the next five years and this is quite a realistic target," he said at an interactive session organised by MCC Chamber of Commerce here.

He said India is a big trading partner of Australia. "India will become the fifth largest trading partner of Australia," he said.

Varghese said Australia was interested in India's financial sector and some Australian banks have already got licenses from the Reserve Bank of India. The Australian banks would not be in retail business but would focus on trade finance.

Education and tourism are the two areas of interest in which Australia could cooperate with India, he said.

Varghese said once the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement was signed between the two nations, market access issues would get addressed.