India in top 10 markets for Australians to invest in, also most challenging one

Melbourne: India has figured among the top 10 markets for the international business community here, as per Australia’s International Business Survey.

India has also emerged as the most challenging of the top 10 countries to do business with.

AIBS 2014, a comprehensive study of Australian companies involved in international business, was released recently.

It found that India ranked as the ninth important market currently. The country was also seen as the third important future market, with respondents saying they were planning on doing business in/with in the next two years.

The survey captured data from more than 1,600 Australian businesses, reflecting the opinions of a wide range of firms from diverse industries operating in over 120 markets. It was commissioned by Export Council of Australia with the support of Austrade and Export Finance and Insurance Corporation, and conducted by University of Sydney between October and December last year.

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To the query of the most important overseas markets, the respondents disclosed that they were targeting a wide range of countries and overall nominated 81 countries as important future markets.

“China and the United States continue to be front and centre. More companies (19 per cent) identify China as their top target market than any other country,” the survey said.

“The United States (chosen by about 15 per cent), India (six per cent) and the United Kingdom and Indonesia (five per cent each) make up the remainder of the top five most important future target markets,” the study noted.

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The survey found that the most important market for international business for the participants varied by the industry. Education and Training industry stood as the most important market for Australian international business community when it came to India.

The respondents said that the most commonly reported barriers to doing business internationally were lack of access to information related to local culture, business practices and language, information about local regulations and tariffs;
and customer payment issues.

On the list of top most important overseas markets in terms of international revenue, India stood at the ninth position, while US and China took the first and second rank respectively.

On rating the ease of doing business in their most important markets as compared to Australia, only 9 per cent of businesses perceived India as an easier or much easier market than Australia, with 81 per cent regarding it as more or much more difficult.

“Perceptions of the difficulty of doing business in India hold across all industries,” the study said.

“While strong growth prospects are overwhelmingly the most important reason provided for planning on doing business in India in the future, personal contacts/networks do play a secondary role.

“While this is mostly not the primary motive for planning to expand to India, it does suggest that personal connections are regarded as facilitating entry to the country,” the study found.

PTI