Over 70 members of the Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce (ICCC), led by President Kanwar Dhanjal, will be participating in the India Business Forum meetings in Mumbai and Delhi that are being organised during Canada's Prime Minister Right Honourable Justin Trudeau's visit to India.
PM Trudeau is in India from February 17 to February 23, 2018. The visit will provide an opportunity to strengthen Canada India economic ties. He will make stops in Agra, Amritsar, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, and New Delhi. During his tour the Canadian Prime Minister will also visit the Taj Mahal, Sri Harmandir Sahib — also known as the Golden Temple — the Swaminarayan Akshardham temple in Gujarat and the Jama Masjid in Delhi during his tour. Trudeau will meet with Modi, and take part several business roundtables focused on boosting trade and investment between the two countries. Trudeau will promote empowering women and girls and strengthening Canada and India's economic ties, says his office.
Kanwar Dhanjal, President, ICCC, expressed immense satisfaction at the response the ICCC received in enrolling entrepreneurs and professionals as delegates to participate in the Business Forums. "It shows the tremendous enthusiasm that the private sector has for the potential prospects of trade and commerce between Canada and India," Mr. Dhanjal said.
A majority of the ICCC's board of directors are participating in the business forums in the two cities. The ICCC has been working actively to promote the Prime Minister's India trip and has also recruited delegates for the two forums. In doing so, the ICCC has succeeded in fulfilling its mandate of fostering bilateral economic relations between Canada and India and to concomitantly create business and professional opportunities for its members and stakeholders. Over the last year and more, the ICCC has organised a series of events that focus on promotion of bilateral trade and services. This includes the recently-held ICCC Winter Expo as well as the Canada-India Business Symposium held in 2017.
Canada and India enjoy a special relationship that is based on a common democratic values and burgeoning economic trade that has been growing exponentially during the last decade. Since September 2016, there have been eleven ministerial visits to India, including, most recently, a trade mission led by Minister of International Trade Hon. François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Hon. Navdeep Bains, and Minister of Transport Hon. Marc Garneau, in November 2017.
Canada-India relations have been on an upward trajectory with both the Prime Minister Modi and Prime Minister Trudeau keen to foster a more meaningful relationship that goes beyond the optics. While it is not certain that the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement and the Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection agreement will be finalized during PM Trudeau's visit, there is heightened expectation that the trip will lead to more intense commercial and economic ties, with the private sector playing an important role in the process.
An indication of the strong ties was evident in January 2018, when the Indian government's union cabinet chaired by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Canada for cooperation in the field of Science & Technology. The MoU will provide a mechanism and help to foster scientific cooperation between R&D and academic institutions of India and Canada.
An innovative model of R&D cooperation between India and Canada will be implemented under a MoU concluded by the Department of Science and Technology with the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada. Under this MoU, the India-Canada Centre for Innovative Multidisciplinary Partnership to Accelerate Community Transformation and Sustainability (IC-IMPACTS) programme will be supported to promote India-Canada multidisciplinary research partnerships.
The R&D projects will be aimed at accelerating social transformation by providing solutions through application of science and technology. The participants will include researchers from scientific organizations, academia and R&D laboratories from India and Canada. Identified areas of mutual cooperation include safe and sustainable infrastructure and integrated water management. This will help to develop institutional networking and support the establishment of connections between scientific organizations, scientists and specialists of India and Canada.
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