Australia wants skilled migrants from India: Envoy

CHANDIGARH - Australia, already one of the favourite destinations for Indian migrants, wants more skilled people from India, the Australian envoy said here Friday.

To woo Indians, the Australian government would organise a promotional campaign to make people aware about the opportunities available in Down Under.

India is the second largest source of skilled migrants to Australia and we want this number to increase further. Therefore, we would organise a promotional campaign in India in 2012. We would target Chandigarh, Punjab and other cities of northern India, said Australian High Commissioner Peter Varghese here.

He added, We want to enhance people to people contact and want Indians to learn more about Australia. Currently 300,000 people of Indian diaspora are living in Australia, and majority of them are from Punjab. I am very optimistic that in mutual interests of India and Australia, relations will get stronger in the coming days.

Varghese, who is of Indian-origin, was talking to media persons during a meet-the-press programme here at the Press Club.

Talking about the new migration programme that Australia is to introduce in the coming months, Varghese said, Our new migration programme will be more demand driven rather than supply driven. It is not the case that rules will be harsher or relaxed for any particular country.

Varghese was in favour of increasing bilateral trade between India and Australia.

Bilateral relations between India and Australia are driven by strong economic impulses. Trade relations between the two countries have grown substantially during the last 5 years. The current bilateral trade is around Australian $22 billion. Australia has emerged as a strong commodity supplier, whereas demand in India has also increased, he said.

There is immense scope in the sectors of finance, IT, healthcare and education. We also support India’s claim for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council, he pointed out.