Indian Companies invited to invest in Canada

Mumbai, Jul 29 (UNI) Canada has invited indian business houses to invest in their country, which has a large pool of knowledge workers and cheap real estate.

Speaking at a seminar ''Doing business in Canada'', organised by the Indian Merchants Chamber here yesterday, Mr Manoj Pundit, Partner, Borden Ladner Gervais LLP, said ' Canada can act as a gateway for Indian businesses with a large pool of knowledge workers and cheap real estate''.' India and Canada may not be big trading partners, but they shared common political and economic values, following British common laws with a parliamentary form of government that encouraged free trade, he said.

Pundit also highlighted the fact that Canada had a million strong NRI community, which could be used as a platform for Indian business houses. ''Investment in Canada is easy with most industries requiring only a formal application. Investment Canada Act is already favourable towards Indian investors'', he said.

Mr Sachin Mahajan, Partner, Genuity Capital Markets, presented the potential industries that could be invested namely Agri-based industries, minerals, energy especially coal and mining.

''We are seeing fundamental changes in the mining and resource markets with China and India, replacing US and Brazil as major players'', he said.

Highlighting the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSE), Mahajan said the TSE had demonstrated ''its robustness in time of global crises'' and had the third largest number of listed companies in the world with a value of of C$ 22 trillion. He also gave assurances that laws in Canada were strict about protecting the rights of investors.

He said Canada could prove to be a fertile ground for M &As (Mergers&Acquisitions) and the recent M&As' undertaken by Indian companies like Birla, Essar and Jubilant across different industries in Canada would attract investors from India.

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