CHENNAI:The Fisheries and highways departments of Tamil Nadu government on Tuesday signed important agreements with the State of Victoria in Australia and with the Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade) of Australian government, in the presence of Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami at the secretariat.
The collaborative arrangement signed by fisheries department would facilitate Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade) and Tamil Nadu government envisages cooperation and support in the development and extension of fisheries and aquaculture sector in adopting best practices so as to enhance local production, support sustainability and enhance export promotion initiatives.
The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the highways department and Roads Corporation of Victoria known as VicRoads, intends to develop and promote mutually advantageous arrangements in management of road networks, road safety, traffic and transport management.
The collaborative arrangement signed by the Fisheries department envisages cooperation between the Government of Victoria State and Tamil Nadu, includes focus on raising awareness on best practices in fisheries and aquaculture management and to work on key areas such as policy, research, equipment, technology, services and skills for the development of fisheries sector in Tamil Nadu.
Some of the services include utilising Australian services to market Tamil Nadu’s seafood products globally, provision of consultancy services and transfer of best practices, technology across the fisheries production value chain, exchange of data and information on fisheries sector in Tamil Nadu and Australia for development of sustainable fisheries management.
This would provide a platform to upgrade the skill through information, education and capacity building for rural fishing communities and knowledge exchange between Tamil Nadu Dr J Jayalalithaa Fisheries University and Australian universities.
The MoU signed between highways department and VicRoads, will benefit in the availing of services of VicRoads for improved road safety and engineering, transfer of best practices and technology, stakeholder interaction and exchange of information and data on road sector for sustainable development and also in institutional development.
Training and capacity building at various levels on both sides would also help in knowledge exchange between Australian universities with highways research station in road sector. This would also help bringing in international best practices, including intelligent transport systems.
Leonie Muldoon, Minister-Commercial and Senior Trade & Investment Commission, Federal Government of Australia, Philip Dalidakis, Minister for Trade and Investment, Government of Victoria, and senior officials participated.Fisheries Minister D Jayakumar, Chief Secretary Girija Vaidyanathan and senior officials also took part.
Road ahead
Training and capacity building at various levels on both sides would also help in knowledge exchange between Australian universities with highways research stations.