Melbourne, July 9 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s long-term vision for India’s economic growth and his understanding of business and investing have reinforced investor confidence in the country, AustralianSuper Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Paul Schroder said on Thursday.

Speaking to IANS, Schroder said he had interacted with PM Modi on earlier occasions and was impressed by his approach towards engaging with businesses and long-term investors.

“I’ve had the chance to meet with PM Modi before, and he’s always assured me that he understands business, he understands investing, and he thinks in the very long term about the prosperity of India and making sure that investors have a stable policy setting and a good forward outlook,” Schroder said.

“So I’ve been very impressed with the way he engages with business,” he told IANS.

AustralianSuper — Australia’s largest pension fund — earlier in the day announced an additional $500 million (Australian dollar) investment in India’s National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF), taking its total holdings in India across all asset classes to $3.3 billion.

The announcement came on the sidelines of the Australia-India Annual Leaders’ Summit here, where PM Modi and his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese jointly addressed the Australia-India CEOs Forum and the Economic Roadmap Business event.

Schroder said the CEO Forum underscored the deep people-to-people ties between India and Australia and the importance of strengthening economic cooperation between the two countries.

“One of the great things about the CEO Forum today was talking about the great strengths of the relationship between the Australian people and the Indian people, and how important it is for us to continue to learn from each other and continue to improve,” he said.

Explaining the rationale behind the fresh investment, Schroder said the additional capital would benefit both Australian pension fund members and India’s infrastructure development.

“AustralianSuper today announced that we will be investing an additional $500 million in the NIIF, which is an infrastructure fund. That will provide a great opportunity for AustralianSuper members to earn a proper return over time and for investments to happen in infrastructure which will help Indian communities and Indian people wherever they are,” he said.

Meanwhile, PM Modi welcomed the investment announcement, saying it reflected global confidence in India’s growth and reform trajectory.

In a post on X, he said the fresh investment demonstrated the immense opportunities India’s rapidly growing economy offers to long-term global investors.

The latest commitment follows AustralianSuper’s initial $240 million (Australian dollar) investment in the NIIF in 2019, which the fund has described as one of its best-performing infrastructure investments.

–IANS

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