India and Canada will soon finalise the civilian nuclear cooperation agreement that will pave the way for new opportunities for both the countries, a senior Indian diplomat has said.
"Both the countries have already exchanged the draft agreement. An expert Canadian team was in Mumbai last week to workout, with the Atomic Energy Commission of India, final technical details and conditions under which business can be done," S M Gavai, Indian High Commissioner to Canada said.
Gavai, commending Canada's efforts to sign a nuclear pact with India, said: "We want to make sure that the proposed Canada-India nuclear agreement is equitable and non-discriminatory and both the countries work on the same wavelength."
"Canadian firms, including federally-owned Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd, Cameco Corp and SNC-Lavalin are eager to forge joint ventures or work with Indian firms to help build billion-dollar nuclear reactors and supply uranium," Gavai said.
He added that India is in favour of early implementation of Canada-India Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement and stressed on the need for facilitating greater engagement between small and medium enterprises of the two countries.
Gavai was delivering a key note address on 'Why India matters for Canadian Companies looking to survive and succeed', which was attended by over 100 top executives of Canadian companies.
The event was organised by Export Development Corporation (EDC) of Canada and Canada-India Business Council (C-IBC).
Joseph Caron, High Commissioner of Canada to India, said that the Harper government has ambitious agenda for India.
Urging Canadian companies to consider emerging business opportunities in India, Caron said there are three reasons for investing in India.
"Firstly, its high growth (7.5 per cent to 12 per cent in manufacturing sector and 8 per cent to 14 per cent in service sector); secondly India has developed business outsourcing capability ($47 billion exports from India with $30 billion investment) and thirdly its macro-economic growth like demographic factors, subsidies on fertilizers and rise in agriculture product prices."
"These factors were in favour of long-term Canadian investment in India where the risk on investment was minimum compared to other emerging economies," Caron added.
Referring to Free Trade Agreement between the countries, Gavai said that there were a number of areas in which both countries have different perceptions and a working group was being set up to resolve the differences.
He said that India would soon undertake major economic reforms that would boost economic growth and prepare the country to face challenges of 21st century.
