Canada's Industry Minister to visit India

Ottawa (Canada), Feb.13 (ANI): Canada's Industry Minister Tony Clement will be visiting India between February 14 and 19.

According to a media release issued by the Canadian High Commission in New Delhi, Clement will be travelling to New Delhi and Mumbai.

While in India, Clement will meet with senior government officials and representatives from the business community to promote commerce, tourism and investment.

Canada and India have developed durable linkages based on decades of commercial, social and political exchanges. Since 2000, these bonds have grown stronger, but much more can be done to build a closer and more productive partnership.Canada's ties with India witnessed an all-round improvement in 2008.

Ottawa backed New Delhi at the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) for a waiver to end its 34-year-long nuclear isolation and the Indian community playing a key role in the political affairs of Canada.

Both countries also intensified top level contacts and took steps for comprehensive nuclear and free trade agreements that would go a long way in strengthening bilateral relations.

Ten new Canada-India Science and Technology joint initiatives worth 17 million dollars were launched during Kapil Sibal's visit to Canada in July last year.

It was then agreed that both countries would cooperate in the fields of biotechnology, health research, medical devices, nano-science and nano-medicine, sustainable and alternate energy and environmental technologies, information and communications technology, and earth sciences and disaster management. In March 2008, aerospace, biopharmaceuticals, photonics and synchrotron science were added to the list.

Canada opened two new trade offices in Hyderabad, the gateway to southern India's Information-Communications Technology hub, and Kolkata, the main business, commercial, financial and transportation centre of eastern India.

There was an increasing realisation at the highest level that Canada simply cannot afford to miss out on India's phenomenal economic growth.

To boost freer flow of goods and the people, the country took immigration reforms to attract more talents from India.

In 2007, the India-Canada CEO Roundtable recommended the establishment of ambitious targets -- 10 billion US dollars annually in goods trade and 10 billion US dollars annually in services trade within the next five years.

It was also agreed that the two countries should also work to achieve five billion US dollars annually in bilateralnvestment flows within the next five years.

Business leaders from India and Canada then agreed on the need to enhance bilateral commercial relations. They identified 15 goods and services sectors as priorities, noting that each of these sectors offers tremendous potential for growth. (ANI)