Aviation connectivity and trade opportunities were the key topics of discussion during Western Australian Deputy Premier and Tourism Minister Rita Saffioti’s trade mission to India this month.

 The mission marks the Deputy Premier's first official visit to India since taking on the role in June 2023.

She was accompanied by WA Investment and Trade Commissioner for the India-Gulf region Nashid Chowdhury, Perth Airport representatives and Tourism WA Managing Director Carolyn Turnbull.

 The trade mission began in Delhi where Deputy Premier Saffioti met with key Indian airlines and tourism operators, including Air India and IndiGo, to discuss tourism partnerships, including securing a future direct flight between India and Perth.

This was followed by a press conference with various media outlets, promoting Western Australia as a world-class destination to visit, study and invest. 

Deputy Premier Saffioti also held bilateral meetings with investors and government officials to discuss investment opportunities across a number of sectors from green energy and critical minerals to mining, international education and innovation.

 The theme of fostering aviation and trade opportunities was further expanded at an Invest and Trade WA business luncheon hosted at the Australian High Commission.

During her keynote address, Deputy Premier Saffioti highlighted the important trade and cultural linkages between WA and India, and reaffirmed the WA Government’s commitment to further deepening these connections as well as forging new partnerships.

 Tourism remained a key priority in Chennai with a tourism stakeholder event attended by key travel businesses across India, showcasing WA as a world-class holiday destination for Indian visitors.

 Deputy Premier Saffioti also took time out to attend a ‘networking nigazchi’, or networking event, at Invest and Trade WA’s Chennai office.

Officially opened in 2022 during WA’s largest ever trade mission to India, the Invest and Trade WA office marks WA as being the first Australian state to establish a presence in Chennai, capital city of Tamil Nadu.

 At the nigazchi, Deputy Premier Saffioti and Tamil Nadu Minister for Information Technology and Digital Services Palanivel Thiaga Rajan took the opportunity to officially announce the Innovation Exchange Statement between Western Australia and Tamil Nadu.

The announcement builds on a Memorandum of Understanding signed last year between India’s iTNT Hub and the Curtin University-based WA Data Science Innovation Hub, laying the foundation for knowledge sharing and skills development between WA and India’s innovation ecosystems.

 The Statement will also see the establishment of a Twinning Innovation Hub between WA and Tamil Nadu.

 From skills development to skills exchange, Deputy Premier Saffioti met with Minister for Youth Welfare and Sports Development Udhaynidhi Stalin to discuss the development of further people-to-people connections between WA and India through skills and sport exchanges.

 To find out more about trade and investment opportunities between Western Australia and India, reach out to the Invest and Trade WA team at investandtrade@jtsi.wa.gov.au

Published on: 02 February 2024