British Columbia, Canada is keen on a partnership with Indian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) for trade, said Chaitanya Patil, director of India Trade & Investment, Business Columbia, during an interactive session organised by the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PHDCCI) with a delegation from the British Columbia in Chandigarh, to explore business opportunities with India.
Patil made a presentation and discussed the profile, geography and economy of British Columbia and pointed out that it was Canada’s Pacific Gateway, at the crossroads between Asia and North America.
“The government of British Columbia is pro-business and keen on building linkages with SMEs in this region. It has a skilled and inventive workforce, competitive business costs and high quality of life. Excellent research centres, innovative culture and expeditious supply chain gives British Columbia a strong,competitive advantage in several key industry clusters such as agriculture, food processing, education and green technology,” added Patil.
Patil also said, “We are looking at new and emerging sectors like tourism, film, information and communications technology, high technology and green energy etc.”
The meeting provided an opportunity for fruitful business-to-business networking between the British Columbia delegation and industry representatives of the region.
Earlier, while initiating the discussion, Dalip Sharma, regional director PHDCCI, said that India and Canada have a longstanding bilateral relationship based on shared democratic values, multi-cultural, multi ethnic and multi-religious nature of the two societies and strong people-to people contacts.
In recent years, both countries have been working to enhance bilateral co-operation in a number of areas of mutual importance.