When Mary Jane Stenberg of Kwantlen Polytechnic University went to India with the Surrey Board of Trade last month, she was surprised to find a university in Mumbai – the Shreemati Nathibai Damodar Thackersey Women’s University – with an Institute of Canadian Studies.
As executive director of external relations for Kwantlen, Stenberg’s mission was to explore the possibilities for student exchanges. She didn’t expect to find Indian students studying Canadian law, politics and business.
In fact, according to the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute, there are close to two dozen universities in India offering Canadian studies programs. It underscores just how serious Indians are about increasing trade relations with Canada, Stenberg said.
“Everywhere I went, I heard, ‘We’ve had enough of fact-finding missions and memoranda of understanding that don’t go anywhere. If you want to do business with us, we want you to follow through with us,’” Stenberg said.
“I have to tell, India is open for business,” adds Anita Huberman, Surrey Board of Trade CEO. “In our opinion, it’s an untapped market.”
It’s a market with 1.2 billion people and an annual GDP growth rate of about 9% – about the same as China’s – according to the World Bank. Despite the possibilities such numbers present, Canada’s trade with India remains low.
Canada does more trade with China in a month than it does in a year with India, according to a 2008 report for the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada.
Canadian exports to India in 2006 were worth just $1.7 billion – less than 1% of Canada’s total exports – according to Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada. Imports were at about the same level.
Canadian exports to China, by contrast, were $12.8 billion, according to the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, with imports worth $44.4 billion.
In November 2010, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced Canada would enter discussions with India on a free-trade agreement, and business and political leaders in Surrey have been busy ever since trying to forge new ties in India.
From April 12-21, 20 board of trade delegates – half of them businessmen and women – visited Mumbai and Delhi. It was the second trade mission to India from Surrey in recent months.
In January, Surrey mayor Diane Watts also led a business delegation to India. Two months after that mission, Surrey’s Jhajj Lumber shipped five containers of red cedar (175,000 board feet) to India. (See “Surrey lumber venture breaks into India” – issue 1124; May 10-16.)
Nearly one million Canadians are of Indian descent. With a population that is 29% Southeast Asian, the City of Surrey is the logical choice to lead efforts to increase trade relations with India, Huberman said.
Huberman believes India has some distinct advantages over China as a trading partner.
“I just found it very difficult to do business in China, not only because of the language barrier but because you also have to deal with the government,” Huberman said of her last trade mission to China.
Add Stenberg: “[India] is a much easier country to work with. We have a common culture, in many ways, with the British influence. We also are working with people who are educated in and work in English. I find that the value systems and the way that people do business are really similar.”
There are obstacles, however. India does not have China’s infrastructure, its literacy rates are not as high as China’s, and bureaucracy and corruption mean Canadian business owners who want to do business in or with India need partners on the ground whom they can trust, Huberman said.
Establishing those partnerships was one of the goals of the board of trade’s recent trip to India, where a number of agreements with business organizations were signed.
Huberman identified 12 sectors where there is a need for Canadian resources, goods, services or expertise. The top five are scrap metal, storage containers for wheat and sugar, small tractors, pine and hardwood and multimedia and animation.
Vancouver and India both have thriving film industries, and Huberman said two Bollywood film directors she met want to film in Canada.
Co-operative banking is also big in India, so Coast Capital Savings sent a representative to explore banking-sector opportunities.
India’s largest shipping company, JM Baxi and Co., is hoping to get an agreement with the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority and Fraser Surrey Docks on container traffic, according to Huberman.
There are also opportunities for Canadian companies to do joint-venture partnerships with Indian manufacturers, as there’s a strong manufacturing sector in India, Huberman said.
Brian Fortier, president of Bevco Sales International Inc., which manufactures food and beverage packing equipment such as bottling systems, met Indian manufacturers who build equipment for the pharmaceutical industry.
“I did meet a couple of other manufacturers there that build similar but not the same equipment [as Bevco] that may want me to try to sell it over here, which is a possibility,” Fortier said.
He added that he was impressed with the business organizations he had met in India.
“They’re very focused on business, and they’re very organized,” he said.
Three growth sectors in India are telemedicine, health care and hospital administration software and legal and accounting expertise.
Stenberg said there may be good opportunities for Canadian universities, like Kwantlen, to provide some of the training needed in India for the technology sector.
“I spoke to a graduate school of business in Mumbai who is quite keen on developing a post-graduate program, which would have the students study for part of the time in Canada and part of the time in India,” she said.
$1.7 billion: Canadian exports to India in 2006
$12.8 billion: Canadian exports to China in 2006