Canada-Tamil Nadu Bilateral Trade & Investment Conference

Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce in collaboration with the Confederation of Indian IIndustries and the Government of Tamil Nadu jointly organized a conference on Canada-Tamil Nadu Bilateral Trade & Investment. Speaking at the conference, Governor K. Rosaiah, said, “Indo-Canadian relations date back to several years. I am happy to note that more than 300 MoUs have been signed to share and collaborate on joint research programs in the fields of higher education between both countries.”

In his remarks, Naval Bajaj, President, ICCC, emphasized the need to leverage the presence of the Indo-Canadian community in Canada to promote bilateral ties. “There is a 1.2 million-strong Indian diaspora in Canada that is immensely interested in doing business in India. Presently, the Canada-India trade, which is to the tune of $5 billion, is well below the potential. The signing of the comprehensive economic partnership agreement (CEPA) will boost existing trade. We believe that with better cooperation, this figure could reach $15 million. We are also planning to open a resource centre in India to facilitate Canadians in getting the know-how on Indian business,” Bajaj said.

The ICCC President also spoke about branding. He said, “There is a need for the branding of India in Canada and vice versa, Canada, too, has potential trade sectors in energy, education and oil.”

Several high-profile speakers from the Tamil Nadu government and representatives of companies with operations in the states gave in-depth information about the investment climate in the state. The sectors represented at the conference included agriculture and agri-foods, food processing, energy, information technology, finance, and education.

Speakers from Canada included Hon. Joe Daniel, Member of Parliament; Subha Sundarajan from Canada’s Trade Commissioner’s Service; Ray Chan, Government of Saskatchewan; Sohail Saeed, City of Brampton; Raksh Joshi, entrepreneur from Alberta and Abu Becker, entrepreneur from Ontario.

Meeting with Hon. P. Thangamani, Tamil Nadu’s Minister for Industries

The delegation then met Tamil nadu’s Minister for Industries, Hon. P. Thangamani. Naval Bajaj apprised the Minister of the need for the Indian states to forge linkages with Canada.

“Today, even the cities in Canada are reaching out to potential investors, the Indian states should take a leaf from their book and aggressively market themselves globally,” the ICCC President said.

He said that the Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce would be starting a centre for excellence for small businesses which would become a resource centre for Indian states who wish to explore the Canadian market.

While accepting the ICCC President’s suggestion to work closely, Minister Thangamani gave detailed information of Tamil Nadu’s industrial growth and prospects.

Visit to Anna University

The delegation then visited Anna University and held a roundtable discussion with members of the faculty that included the Prof. Dr. M. Rajaram, vice chancellor of the university, deans of different faculties, the registrar, and other senior professors. Anna University is already collaborating with the Ryerson University and a memorandum of understanding exists with Saskatchewan.

During the discussion, Anna University officials proposed that ICCC assist students from their university who come to Canada for higher studies. Naval Bajaj readily agreed to this proposal. The ICCC will be signing a MoU with the university to facilitate this collaboration.

Visit to Olympia Green Park

The delegation visited the Olympia Technology Park is an environmentally friendly park with a modern 8.4 acre technology environment, futuristic design and state-of-the-art construction, environmentally complaint planning, more than a million square feet of commercial space, telecommunication broadband connectivity with redundancy through multiple service providers.

Visit to Hyundai factory

The delegation visited the fully automated workshops at the Hyundai facility that can produce a vehicle on the assembly line within 72 seconds. The delegation discussed the possibilities of collaboration between the facility and the auto ancillary units that are owned by Indo-Canadians.

In addition to these business visits, the delegation also visited Dakishnamurthy, the cultural heritage centre of Tamil Nadu, and Mallapuram, the culture and folk art centre.