Welcome Address by Mr Sushil Ansal, Chairman, India -Canada JBC-FICCI

It gives me great pleasure to welcome Mr. Gordon Campbell, the Premier of British Columbia and the visiting delegation. Mr. Gordon Campbell is the 34th Premier of British Columbia. He started his career as a schoolteacher. He was elected as the mayor of Vancouver for three successive terms from 1986 to 1993.

Today, Sir, you represent a beautiful state which is not only rich in natural resources especially copper, oil, natural gas, iron, zinc to name a few but has also been able to utilize a significant part of it, profitably.

British Columbia, the westernmost province of Canada, is almost wholly mountainous, with nearly 3/4th of it covered with forests and hence is a huge source for Timber. This beautiful place, often called the fishing paradise, attracts millions of tourists. The hydro electric resources, the pulp and paper mills and aluminum plants are highly developed. Education is another key area. Institutions of higher learning like the university of British Columbia at Vancouver and the Simon Fraser University at Burnaby attracts many students from across the world.

Each of these well established sectors in British Columbia has much synergy with India. We would love to hear from you, in details, on the areas of priority that you visualize.

We are happy to note that the companies accompanying you here are already taking initiatives in forging partnerships and initiating dialogues.

India is Canada's largest trading partner in the South Asia region. The stock of Canada's direct investment in India has increased in line with India's market liberalization. This market offers promising opportunities for partnering, application of high-tech solutions, technology sharing and long-term business development. India offers significant opportunities for Canadian trade and investment in areas of demonstrated Canadian expertise. India is one of the 12 countries (G8+4) identified by DFAIT (Department of Foreign Affair and International Trade) as priority markets for 2003. Furthermore, the Export Development Corporation identified India among its three "premium" markets and is actively seeking more business.

Canadian companies are enjoying success in the Indian market. Contracts have been signed in traditional Canadian area of expertise such as power, communications and transportation, and there are promising new sales in sectors such as information technology, the environment and agri-food. Services, which are not captured in trade statistics, may double Canadian export to India and are reflected in a growing Canadian presence in the Indian banking, insurance and financial services sector as well as in engineering and consultancy services.

Areas for promotion of Canadian investments into India are:

• Education
  
• Energy
  
• Transportation Infrastructure
  
• Environment
  
• Tourism

India and British Columbia could benefit immensely if we outsource from each other those products and services, which we presently procure from elsewhere. India’s Agro products, Chemicals, Drugs, Pharmaceuticals and Textile meet the International standards and can effectively meet British Columbia’s demand in these sectors. In turn BC’s rich mineral resource base, Hydropower, Education can be key synergy areas.
With concerted efforts, we shall be able to scale newer heights in our bilateral relationship.

Your state has received many prominent Indian leaders in the past including Ministers, Senior Policy Makers and Industry representatives with an objective to strengthen the economic ties. End of this month, FICCI and ICBC are jointly taking a mission to Canada this year which will also be visiting Vancouver. Mr. Vinod Khanna, Minister of State for External Affair, Government of India is leading the mission.

The Commonwealth connection has been a base on which the Canadian - Indian trade relation were found. Since then there have been many more developments which have strengthened our ties. One such development is large number of citizens of Indian origin in your country and also in your province. Indo-Canada partnership in the international forums, humanitarian efforts and peace initiatives have played a crucial role. These have created a proactive framework within which the stage has been set for building deeper roots for economic partnerships. Some significant Government to Government initiatives have played an important role in the past like the launch of Focus India Trade Strategy, giving a historic boost to business and commercial relations. The series of high level visits which have taken place in the past six weeks have been representation of the continuation of the efforts between the two governments at the highest levels to put our bilateral relations on a fast track. In the given scenario the track two is feeling greatly motivated and through the business organizations and apex chambers such as ours, we assure you of our active support and enthusiastic partnership. With these few words, I would like to now personally welcome you formally with a bouquet of flowers.