Consul General Dinesh Bhatia greets Toronto Mayor John Tory ahead of his India visit

The reception was attended by  65-odd invitees including members of Mayor’s delegation, Indo-Canadian community and several top businesses of Toronto.

Bhatia said this will be the first visit by a Toronto Mayor to India and will help not only to strengthen the economic ties but also enhance closer relationship between the two countries.

In his welcoming speech Bhatia stated that due to a large Indo-Canadian community the scope of furthering the economic cooperation between the two counties remained.

Bhatia mentioned about “Make in India, Skill India and Clean India” campaigns and encouraged the financial institutions in Canada to focus on India, which at present is the “most favourite investment destination for the rest of the world.”

Tory thanked Bhatia for such a warm send off to India beginning March 15 and said that his itinerary included Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad adding, “there are opportunities to establish a bigger market for Toronto exports.”

Tory informed that during his visit to India he would be accompanied by a strong delegation of more than 20 representatives from information technology, film industry, entertainment, and education sectors.

Tory said Toronto is already reputed as a welcoming city in India and it should now consider establishing itself as a welcoming business city for India.

Bhatia mentioned that during 2015-16 Indo-Canada bilateral trade had reached more than C$ 8 billion.

He said top IT firms from India such as TCS, WIPRO, Infosys, HCL, Polaris, Minacs and PayTM including two of the Indian banks, namely SBI-Canada and ICICI were well-established in Canada.

Bhatia added that leading Canadian financial institutions like CPPIB, Fairfax, Brookfields and OTTP have also generously invested in India.

In addition several Indo-Canadians have made major investments in India.

(Reporting by Asha Bajaj)

Image:Dinesh Bhatia twitter page