This is the third MoU, Western Australia will be signing with the India. The first one was with the ministry of mines in 2005, which was to attract Indian businessmen in Australian mining especially in gold and diamond exploration. But, no success has been made so far.
"According to my knowledge, no Indian company has evinced interest in gold and diamond exploration in Western Australia despite the latter shares 18 per cent of India's total gold consumption of 750-tonne and diamond exports worth Aus $600 million," said Eric Ripper, Deputy Premier, Treasure, Minister for State Development.
India's diamond industry procures rough diamonds directly from Western Australia through Antewerp. Western Australia has also signed MoU with the Tamil Nadu Agriculture University for developing research and training jointly in agriculture.