Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s trip to India earlier this month was successful on several fronts, but in many ways it was the activity behind the scenes that contained the real story of Canada’s evolving relationship with that country.
Coinciding with the prime minister’s trip, the Canada-India Business Council hosted its second annual India Business Forum in New Delhi on November 5-6. The forum brought together leaders from industry, government and academia to address the priority challenges facing the Canada-India relationship. Both governments sent senior representatives to address the forum, with Canada represented by B.C.’s own Ed Fast, minister for international trade. The forum was co-chaired by Stockwell Day, senior strategic adviser at McMillan LLP in Vancouver (and aCanada-India Business Council’s national board member).
This year’s forum was the largest gathering ever of senior Canadian business leaders in India and the largest meeting of B.C. business leaders in the country since Premier Christy Clarke’s trade mission last autumn.
The program highlighted areas of opportunity in the Indian economy, including areas of strengths in the B.C. economy, such as clean energy, oil and gas, infrastructure development, mining and natural resources and education. Simon Fraser University co-sponsored a breakout panel on clean-tech innovation and commercialization, where more than 50 delegates discussed the opportunities and challenges of clean-energy investment and operations in India. Senior representatives from Teck Resources and UBC offered their insight and expertise on panels discussing corporate social responsibility and skills training.
Several senior delegates stated that the Canada-India Business Council’s forum was even better and more engaging than the following (and arguably higher profile) World Economic Forum in Gurgaon, India.
The forum’s outcome will be a series of policy positions and strategies for moving the B.C.-India relationship forward through better business ties, policy advocacy and educating companies in both countries.
The forum also celebrated successes like Westport Innovations’ recently announced deal that will see them partner with India’s Tata Motors on the development of a natural gas engine for trucks and buses. While in India, Westport also signed an agreement with Technology Action for Rural Advancement (an Indian social enterprise) to fuel mobile phone-tower generators with natural gas, enabling the electrification of nearby rural villages with the residual power. Westport demonstrates how B.C. companies need to look to India for the kinds of partnerships that will fuel innovation and contribute to their bottom line.
India is also a huge potential source of investment, especially for the natural resources sector. Over the past decade, India has dramatically increased investment into Canada.
From 2002 to 2006, Indian investment into Canada was less than $600 million. From 2007 to 2011, this figure skyrocketed to nearly $23.5 billion. Major deal announcements now seem to be almost monthly, as Indian companies actively acquire, upgrade and expand Canadian projects to fuel India’s dramatic need for our natural resources.
B.C. will benefit from this growing demand, and we should expect Indian investors to increasingly target our province in the coming years.
The Canada-India Business council is doing its part to ensure that B.C. companies learn the opportunities in India and have the wherewithal to pursue them. Interest in the Indian market is growing rapidly among local companies, and the B.C. government has also been a strong supporter of B.C.-India trade. While it is clear that all levels of government have to play a role in fostering ties between Canada and India, it is the business community that should step into the huge and attractive Indian market and cement this relationship through trade and investment. •
