Minister for Citizenship and Communities Victor Dominello will travel to India this week, supporting initiatives of NSW Premier, Barry O’Farrell to promote trade and investment opportunities in NSW.

Mr Dominello will spend five days in India, where he will meet Indian trade representatives in Gujarat and sister-state Maharashtra, where he will discuss work programs on tertiary skills, student exchanges, sustainable urban development and water security.

He will also visit disadvantaged communities, supported by senior officials of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), to investigate international best practice for economic capacity building.

Mr Dominello said that the Premier’s annual visits to India had provided the impetus for the consolidation of existing agreements.

“I will meet with Indian government officials in three cities, building on key partnerships established by the Premier on his recent trip. Discussions on our sister-state agreement with Maharashtra will be an important focus,” Mr Dominello said.

India’s leading industrial and financial services state, Maharashtra, is an emerging trading partner for NSW with new investment opportunities across the tourism, ICT, international education and finance sectors.

Mr Dominello will receive briefings from AKDN officials in Gujarat and visit the communities of Sayla, Talala, Gadu, Rajkot, Vantavach and Varaval where education, infrastructure, youth and water sanitation projects are underway.

He will also spend time in Delhi where he will meet with international organisations which work to prevent human trafficking in India.

“The Aga Khan Foundation is a world leader in capacity building in remote communities and I hope to apply insights from this trip in the delivery of our key initiatives under OCHRE, the NSW Government plan for Aboriginal affairs,” Mr Dominello said.

AKDN’s community development work spans across Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia and Southern Asia. It runs over 1,000 programmes and projects, employing over 80,000 people and provides non-profit expenditure of US$600 billion.