Dancing with giants: India and China(1)
Prime Minister John Key and Trade Minister Tim Groser witness Finzsoft's Andrew Holliday sign a deal with HCL's Rajiv Sodhi. Photo / Supplied
NZ Inc is getting ahead of the play with India, writes Fran O'Sullivan.
New Zealand Inc is taking on board the lessons learnt from the China free trade deal as it prepares to leverage a similar market opening with India.
There is general agreement that New Zealand businesses were slow off the mark to take advantage of the 2008 China FTA deal with an NZ Inc strategy not even formed until years after the ink was dry on the agreement. But this time round, both private and public players are putting in the spadework well ahead of the formal signing ceremonies.
Rather than say India is there "go and get it", our view is more education is required upfront," says David Green, ANZ Managing Director, Institutional.
"We also think there is an opportunity for New Zealand businesses to work together there." Green instances the successful collaborations now being undertaken in China by companies in the wine and green mussel sectors.
He says this enables the companies to implement a co-ordinated strategy to achieve returns at the "premium end of the scale."
Many of ANZ's local clients were exposed to the bustling China market during a series of roadshows that the bank led last year to leverage New Zealand's presence at the Shanghai Expo.
Green says it took a while for New Zealand to build momentum with China but businesses should already be thinking about how they should do business with India.
In a submission to a parliamentary inquiry into the proposed India deal, ANZ said it considered India a major engine for economic growth.
Already it was Australia's fourth largest export destination and there was every reasons similar benefits would be available to NZ exporters. Some of NZ's ICT companies have already got themselves established with Indian partners (see below.)
ANZ operated in India from 1984 to 2000 through its subsidiary ANZ Grindlays. It was India's largest foreign bank with a staff of 5000 servicing personal and business clients from more than 60 branches and businesses.
The highly regulated Indian economy impacted adversely on business profitability and after the 1997 Asian financial crisis, ANZ sold its operation to Standard Chartered.
