TORONTO/MUMBAI: Vic Fedeli, Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade, is leading a business mission to India focused on enhancing business ties to drive job creation, trade and investment in Ontario.
Representatives from 12 Ontario companies from the province’s information and communications technology (ICT) and infrastructure sectors are with Fedeli, Nina Tangri, Parliamentary Assistant for Economic Development, and Deepak Anand, Member of Provincial Parliament and special advisor on India, from November 18 to 22 as they look to secure business partnerships and export sales.
Minister Fedeli has reported that he has engaged in several government-to-government meetings with senior officials and key industry leaders and promote
ICYMI https://t.co/uKOg3d7z35
— Victor Fedeli (@VictorFedeli) November 24, 2019
On November 18, Fedeli also met with former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Saskatchewan’s Minister of Trade and Export Development Jeremy Harrison (both of whom are leading a trade delegation to India) at Canada House in New Delhi.
Fedeli also promoted Ontario at the Canada-India Business Council’s Business Forum and the Indo-Canadian Business Chamber’s Annual Conference. The president of Toronto’s Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce, Pramod Goyal, is also part of the mission. Fedeli said a company in India VVDN-Tech had announced they were going to open a new facility in Kitchener-Waterloo with 250 to 300 engineering jobs.
“We’ve been engaged with this company for several months and just put the finishing touches on it on this trip,” Fedeli said.
A personal highlight for the minister was appearing on the poplar Kapil Sharma Show. “He’s a late-night comedian with 40 million viewers, I did his show and talked about the Indo-Canadian community, how vibrant they are with 830,000 members residing in Ontario,” Fedeli said.. “I had a really good opportunity to plug Ontario to a world-wide audience.”
India is the seventh largest economy in the world and represents one of the fastest growing markets. While India imports C$667.2 billion (US$514.5 billion) in goods each year, exports from Canada are less than one per cent of that global market share. Ontario is helping small- and medium-sized businesses increase exports to this important market through business-to-business introductions and targeted trade missions that will generate greater economic growth.
Fedeli also witnessed a couple of Seneca College MOUs, and held some roundtable events in Mumbai and New Delhi.
• Two-way trade between the province of Ontario and India is worth C$3.2 billion (US $2.4 billion). Nine per cent of Canadian exports to India are from Ontario.
• Ontario has Trade and Investment Offices in New Delhi and Mumbai to attract and facilitate investment deals, help small- and medium-sized enterprises expand their export capacity and promote the province’s open for business mandate.
• More than 50 Indian companies across all sectors have operations and investments in Ontario.
• Over 52,000 Indian post-secondary students studied in Ontario’s world-class universities and colleges during the 2018 to 2019 school year.
• Last year, over 171,000 Indian tourists visited Ontario.
Pics: Vic Fedeli/Twitter