Highlights
- Immigration Minister Alan Tudge announces new task force to attract businesses and talent to Australia
- India will not be one of the key markets initially says Alan Tudge
- The government must focus on clearing backlog of applicants in business streams: Abul Rizvi
The Global Business and Talent Attraction Taskforce has been set up to trigger job creation by boosting efforts towards attracting the world’s leading talent and high-value businesses into the country under a new initiative to support Australia’s post-COVID-19 pandemic recovery.
India is currently not part of the initial set of countries that have been identified as key markets by the global task force set up as part of the government's JobMaker plan.
Providing an insight into the plan during a virtual press meet for multicultural media on Friday, Acting Immigration Minister Alan Tudge said the task force will initially focus on three key sectors: advanced manufacturing, financial services (including FinTech), and health.
“These are the real job-making migrants that we want to attract. They might be the entrepreneur, the serious investor, the tech wizard that everybody's chasing to get them to work for their firm, and we want to make it attractive for them to come to Australia,” said Minister Tudge.
Is India on the list of target markets?
The talent will initially be sourced from four countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, Hong Kong and Singapore - leaving out markets like India, which is currently the largest source for skilled migrants to Australia.
Acknowledging that while India will initially not be targeted as a source country for the high-value talent, Minister Tudge assured that Indians will not be overlooked either.
“I'd say is that the task force, its initial set of countries does not include India, but that does not exclude India either. And I just wanted to make that point," Minister Tudge said in response to a question raised by SBS Punjabi.
We'll still be opportunistic if there's some great talent and some great businesses that want to come to Australia from India
Explaining the rationale behind that decision, former senior Immigration Department official Abul Rizvi said India is not on the list because the global task force has been primarily set up to lure business migrants who are interested in migrating to Australia to establish their operations here, a route that is not often chosen by migrants from India.
"Business migration program is different from the skilled migration program. Business migrants generally have to have a lot of money and an expensive business background and an interest to migrating to Australia and setting up a business here. Traditionally we have attracted very few business migrants from India. The vast bulk of our business migrants have tended to come from mainland China,” he said.
'Clear the backlog'
Group of business men and women having a meeting in office during corona virus pandemic. (Representational image). Source: Digital Vision
In its annual report on the for the fiscal year 2018-19, the Department of Home Affairs revealed that “demand for places in the Business Innovation & Investment Program (BIIP) increased by 4.6 per cent in 2018-19 and the pipeline has also increased by 21.7 per cent, from 18,897 applicants as at 30 June 2018 compared to 23,002 applicants at 30 June 2019.”
Drawing attention to the nearly 23,000 business migrants awaiting an outcome on their applications, Mr Rizvi said the government should focus on clearing the backlog rather than hunting for new business migrants in other countries.
“At the end of June 2019, the Department of Home Affairs had on hand around 23,000 such applications. Now Minister Tudge wants to diversify to other countries but he doesn’t make it clear what he is going to do with the existing applications he got.
“And as far as attracting global talent is concerned, it is best done by employers who know the skills they want to recruit rather than leaving the task to government committees,” he added.
Business communities welcome the plan:
The setting up of the task force has, however, been welcomed by business leaders who believe it is an important first step towards rebuilding if business activity across the Australian economy following the COVID-19 induced downturn.
Yasser El-Ansary, the chief executive of the Australian Investment Council said this new taskforce sends a clear message to the world that Australia is now open for business and that we are seeking to attract important talent and businesses to our market.
“As we rebound out of the COVID-19 downturn, we must ensure that the economic recovery is underwritten by big gains in innovation and technology to drive increased productivity. Attracting the world’s best businesses and talent to Australia will help boost our domestic productivity and global competitiveness,” Mr El-Ansary said in a press release.
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