The global financial crisis has slammed shut the door to established export destinations, such as Japan, Europe and the US, prompting some Australian companies to seek new markets.
One of those new markets is India, says Austrade, whose economy is heavily reliant on domestic consumption and has among the world's highest households savings rate.
Austrade, the federal government's investment development agency, says the downturn in the major economies has raised the profile of emerging markets such as India.
Austrade senior trade commissioner for South Asia Peter Linford says Australian companies have made greater efforts to increase their awareness of opportunities available in India.
"When you reach a situation where global markets are retracting and decreasing, Australian companies which rely on exports ... have to either reduce their own business or they need to look to new markets," Mr Linford said on Friday.
"I think that is the catalyst at the moment that is taking Australian companies to South Asia and to India."
Mr Linford said the signs so far had been encouraging.
"The market is already showing that Australian companies that are going to India and South Asia are achieving more success than they have been achieving in past years," Mr Linford said.
The International Monetary Fund's latest forecast predicted the global economy would contract by 0.5 to one per cent in 2009.
If accurate, it would mark the first such decline in 60 years.
The head of global emerging market equities at Aberdeen Asset Management Devan Kaloo said this week that he expected countries with strong domestic economies such as India, China, Brazil and Mexico to recover first and lead the upturn in global growth.
"I see the prognosis for emerging markets as being better than that of developed countries," Mr Kaloo said in a statement.
India's economy grew at 5.3 per cent in the year to the December quarter, down from 7.6 per cent recorded in the September quarter.
Mr Linford is based in New Delhi but has returned to Australia for a series of Austrade seminars on doing business in South Asia.
He said more than 1200 individuals and companies had registered for these events, which was "significantly up" on last year.
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