Indo Canada Chamber of Commerce (ICCC) organized a roundtable and a business reception for the visiting Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industries (FICCI) delegation from India on 18 September 2015 at the Ontario Investment and Trade Centre in downtown Toronto.
The ICCC shares with FICCI the objective of creating commercial and business opportunities for Canadian and Indian entrepreneurs, and to foster bilateral trade. To meet these objectives, both ICCC and FICCI periodically engage in trade promotion activities; the most common form being trade delegations that ICCC lead to India and FICCI brings to Canada. Over the last decade, the relations between ICCC and FICCI have intensified and the two Chambers have collaborated on several initiatives, the biggest one being the offshore Pravasi Bharatiya Divas in Toronto in 2011.
The latest delegation, focusing on the infrastructure sector, was led by Mr. Prem Singh Meena, the Additional Secretary of Government of India’s Aviation sector, and comprised over 20 delegates from both the private and public sector companies, and members of FICCI.
The focus of the visiting delegation was to explore partnerships in infrastructure financing, opportunities in planning design, engineering and consultancy, construction and engineering projects, public-private partnership project management, technical knowhow.
At the roundtable, Sanjay Makkar, President, Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce, said, “Canadian companies are interested in the tremendous prospects that the infrastructure sector in India offers, but given that India’s need is so gigantic, there is a dire necessity to find innovative sources to finance India’s infrastructure.”
He added that one of the challenges that slowed down the involvement of Canadian entities into the Indian infrastructure projects is the absence of a Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement between Canada and India. An agreement on investment promotion and protection is being negotiated since 2004, and has taken an inordinately long time to come to fruition. “Such a treaty is imperative for any progress to boost the confidence of Canadian investors,” he said.
Mr. Meena, the leader of the FICCI delegation, delineated the trade and investment opportunities on offer in India especially in the infrastructure sector. “The Indian government is moving ahead with the development of smart cities. The paper work for getting approval for getting the license has been reduced from 100 to 35 NOCs only. Single window system is working well,” he observed.
Later, speaking at the business reception, the ICCC President emphasized the collaborative approach that both the Chambers have taken over their long years of association in promoting bilateral trade. He pledged that ICCC would assist the visiting delegation in providing a platform to network with Canadian business leaders and market experts to forge new partnerships and gain competitive advantage; assist in understanding global best practices and partnership strategies; assist in organizing interactive meetings and B2B meetings, and create opportunities for knowledge sharing and discussion on measures for restoring confidence in the PPP projects and attracting private investment.
Among the other dignitaries who also addressed the gathering were Consul General Akhilesh Mishra, who said that the political leadership is committed in India and they are working hard to move the things faster. Mr. Sandip Sammadar of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industries (FICCI) lauded the ICCC for its role in trade promotion. Mr. Jagdish Bajaj delivered the welcome remarks.
