With one billion people in their home market, it may seem a little surprising Indians would look abroad for investment opportunities.
But Mumbai’s Kapil Wadhawan is one such person, and says Australia is an attractive place to expand his business.
Mr Wadhawan is chairman of Wadhawan Holdings Private Ltd, a diversified company with interests in real estate, food, hospitality and dining operating in India and United Arab Emirates.
Mr Wadhawan, who was in Australia this week to work on a real estate project in Melbourne’s inner city, said there was merit in doing business internationally.
He said Australia and India had been long-term trading partners, and was encouraged by the willingness of those in Australia to engage further with India.
“There is a growing sense when we talk to the people here – the policymakers within Australia – that you would like to get more aligned with India,” Mr Wadhawan said.
“Trade has been growing between our two nations over the last couple of years right across different areas.”
Mr Wadhawan’s focus is on a potential site in Melbourne’s inner city, where he plans to build between 800 and 1000 apartments, a small retail precinct and hotel.
He described Melbourne as the “fashion capital” of Australia and a city with great potential, given the diverse population and large number of foreign students.
And he was unconcerned about recent indicators of a slumping Australian property market.
“The city centre lends itself to good development irrespective whether there is a lull in the demand,” Mr Wadhawan said.
Austrade senior trade commissioner for South Asia, Peter Linford, said he expected the number of Indians coming to Australia for business to increase.
“It’s broad based and becoming more broad,” Mr Linford said from New Delhi.
Initially, the investments were mainly in the resource sector, but had diversified to include to banking, information technology, hotels, manufacturing and biotechnology.