India is increasingly young, cool, upwardly mobile. So where’s the Free Trade Agreement?

Sunday, 31 March 2024

Baljeet Singh came to New Zealand to study a post-graduate degree from India. He is one of an increasing number of students who are arriving here to study, and then staying.

The key to courting India for a Free Trade Agreement is tapping into its diaspora in New Zealand - and waking up to the fact Indians are the new cool, savvy consumer. Kelly Dennett reports.

Baljeet Singh recalls the moment that confirmed New Zealand was home.

“Dad came here last year,” Singh, a senior business analyst who arrived from India in 2019 explains. “He’s a man of principle, a strict and disciplined person. He was not happy when I was moving here.”

Singh had given up a good job to pursue further computing studies at Unitec, to enhance his skillset. Singh’s father, who didn’t understand what the move could do for his son, was not initially supportive.

But last year, when he visited Baljeet and family in Auckland, his mind had changed, and he acknowledged it was the “best decision” his son had made.

“That was the best compliment,” say Baljeet.

Singh is one of a growing cohort of Indians who come to NZ for study - and choose to stay. Singh, now working for Westpac, was impressed with the real-world experience he got through Unitec, the job opportunities, the easy pathway to residency that subsequently allowed - and now, the work-life balance.

“People care about you, they care about your expectations, how you want to grow professionally,” he says. “Even today, managing childcare duties [with work], the organisations are very supportive.”

Observers say NZ’s growing Indian diaspora is key to furthering our cultural and business ties with India, an economic powerhouse increasingly courted by western economies.

Mahesh Muralidhar is a founder, entrepreneur, philanthropist, speaker, investor, and start-up mentor. He is the CEO of Phase One Ventures, a community for early-stage start-ups and venture capital funds.

About 5% of NZ’s population comes from India - more than 200,000 people - with projections suggesting it could be 9% by 2043.

Improving life for those who are here, improving relationships with those who want to come here, and opening channels for business, are all part of the Government’s strategy to pursue India as a free trade partner. Every little bit helps - whether it’s easing immigration pathways, or ensuring a direct flight between the two countries.

Two-way trading with India, the world’s fifth-largest economy, is worth more than $2.5 billion. And while India doesn’t really need NZ - at least not economically - that doesn’t mean we don’t have things to offer, says India-born entrepreneur and past National candidate Mahesh Muralidhar.

“We have a common story as commonwealth cousins. We can pass on agritech, dairytech, learning and knowledge around aged care, physiotherapy, and an opportunity for a socially progressive part of India to engage with another country that’s socially progressive. And education. Absolutely education.”

Muralidhar spent most of his childhood in Singapore, but returned frequently to India until he was a teenager. The social, cultural and business changes there have appeared acutely to him: As a child, India was “closed, not open for business”, its people struggling with poverty. The country had huge cultural pride, but not economic pride, Muralidhar describes.

Since then, things have changed. The average age of the population of 1.4 billion is just 28, and the people are more educated, tech-savvy and upwardly mobile than ever. The country’s economic growth means they also have more spending power than ever - and that presents huge opportunities for New Zealand businesses.

“It’s allowing for … global upward mobility,” Muralidhar says. “You walk through the streets, through the shopping malls, and on every corner there is kids creating content for social media. Their social currency becomes economic currency.”

India cricket team members in Taupō during a previous visit to New Zealand.

By way of example, Muralidhar says, “The Indian cricket team of today is tattooed, with funky hair, wearing suits, and considered hip and cool and fashionable. Twenty years ago, absolutely not.”

Baljeet Singh believes Indians’ perception of NZ has changed, too. Once not seen as a player in tech or big business, now Air New Zealand, Westpac, KPMG all have brand recognition. Coming to New Zealand to study, his focus was on gaining skills and finding work, despite scepticism from friends and family that New Zealanders would be chosen for jobs over migrants.

The Government has pledged to land a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with India within years, although Trade Minister Todd McClay won’t commit to a timeline for negotiations. This week he told the Star-Times he, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters and Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, were focused on rebuilding a relationship that has languished.

NZ has been eyeing India up for over a decade, with former PM John Key unveiling an India Inc. strategy in 2011 that aimed to secure it as a core trade, economic and political partner. For a while, free trade negotiations were on the table, but it’s slow going.

Trade Minister Todd McClay says there are encouraging signs out of India that show it could be amenable to a deal, but that NZ was working on its relationship first, and not broaching negotiations yet.

Relationship-building in India takes time and commitment. Negotiations for an FTA first kicked off in 2010. While meetings continued into 2016, they petered out over reported sensitivities over dairy (India is as protective of its dairy industry as NZ is keen on exporting its products. Australia’s recently-signed FTA with India excluded agriculture.)

A joint statement between Key and India’s prime minister Narendra Modi in 2016 included a commitment to continue working towards an FTA. But Key resigned later that year, and by 2017 Labour was in charge. In 2023 then trade minister Damien O’Connor said NZ was not ready for discussions again.

During campaigning, Luxon criticised the Government for allowing trade between the two countries to fall, from $2.8b in 2017 to $2.3b.

Nikita Sharma says NZ gets unfairly compared to Australia and Canada, and friends of hers are sceptical about what our small country can offer them.

McClay told the Star-Times NZ needed to “invest in the relationship across the board before we can begin talking about trade to them”, but Winston Peters had been “optimistic” following a visit there earlier this year. McClay and Luxon plan to visit later this year.

“One of the really positive things that came out of my first visit there, at the end of last year, was the Indian trade minister agreed with me that we need our trade officials to get together and look at some of the barriers that make it hard for businesses to trade in both directions. That’s happening very soon, I think, in New Zealand, and I just view that as a really positive step forward.”

It was a positive sign that India, McClay said, was doing deals with others, including small European nations not part of the EU. “If you look at some of the countries they are doing … deals with they are not large, or not the same size as them. I think the reason we’re now starting to see them do deals, compared to when I was last trade minister six years ago, when they hadn’t done any, is they realised that one, they need to trade with the world and sell, but, also, if you think about the high-quality food and fibre we produce, they consume more than they produce in many areas.”

He wouldn’t be drawn on whether NZ’s bottom line would be including agriculture in any deal, and would only say it would have to be meaningful to NZ.

Nikita Sharma, a former Unitec postgraduate diploma student, says her friends in India are curious about New Zealand, what it costs to live here, and how the economy is - but locals commonly turn to Canada and Australia as preferred options to live or study abroad.

Baljeet Singh with children Jaisvee, doing hand stand, and Viraaj. He says coming to NZ has been the best decision he’s made.

“When I was about to make this move [friends] were like, ‘Are you sure? The nearest country to you is going to be Antarctica. Your closest relatives are going to be penguins,’” she says. “But, me and my husband, we are happy and content here.”

Sharma, who just gave birth to twins and spoke highly of NZ’s maternity care system, says several things could improve the relationship between the two countries. The first is the underlying racism she faces here.

Despite being in a management position , Sharma says she often encounters the assumption that because she is a recent immigrant, she wouldn’t be considered for top roles. She’s also noticed, generally speaking in New Zealand, pay inequity between locals and migrants.

Direct flights between New Zealand and India would help, too; currently travellers have to transit via Australia or Singapore.

Winston Peters, who was recently in India meeting officials, has also called for direct flights, saying an Auckland to Delhi service would be a game-changer. Air NZ long haul general manager Scott Carr said there was a “growing case” for a direct service, and while not part of the airline’s short-term strategy it could be something it would look at offering with partner airlines.

Lastly, Nikita Sharma says, not quite jokingly, if McDonald’s in NZ would just introduce an Indian-vegetarian burger, she’d promise they’d sell out. In India, the McAloo Tikki burger, which has a spicy potato patty, is a best-seller.

But more seriously, “I also feel, now that I have the platform to say this, the Government needs to take notice of the people living here. Something should be done for the people here. We feel like the abandoned kids of India - we don’t feel part of the conversation.”

Mahesh Muralidhar says NZ has to do the work, and put in the time. “Start connecting with them virtually… Go learn. Go to India and spend time. You gotta be ready to put in the upfront cost.

“How many Kiwis know that India has this many people, that it’s the Europe of Asia, that there are so many languages, that it’s a diverse country? Most Kiwis don’t know there is an election there this year, but they know there is an election in the US. Are we talking [about India] on talkback, or are we talking about what’s happening with the royals?

“[Asian] countries feel like they haven’t been recognised. [We need to say], ‘we see you’. We have a lot of mana in the world. When we attribute our mana more to India, that’s a first stop.”