November 2015
ICCC Newsletter
Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce 924 The East Mall, Etobicoke ON M9B 6K1
From the President’s desk The federal elections have ushered in a change in Canada following the thumping victory of the Liberal Party of Canada and the ascension of Hon. Justin Trudeau as the Prime Minister of Canada. The change signifies the important role that multiculturalism and diversity have in our country. Of the 338 MPs elected in the federal elections, 14 per cent are from the visible minorities – a figure that is close to parity with the number of visible minority citizens in Canada (15 per cent). Pertinently, 19 MPs are of Indian descent, and 22 MPs speak Punjabi (making Punjabi the third largest in the new Parliament, after English and French).
Sanjay Makkar
By the time you read this, the new prime minister would have been sworn-in with his cabinet; from all indications, Indo-Canadians will be well represented, and will definitely be entrusted with important portfolios. While all this is, indeed, impressive and restores our faith in parliamentary democracy, we also need to underscore that as representatives of businesses, we as a Chamber are looking to continuity and stability. We are confident that the new government will understand the contribution of the private sector, especially small businesses, to the economy. We are also confident that the new government will move rapidly ahead to take the Canada-India cooperation on enhancing all aspects of bilateral relations. Of course, the main item on the agenda is the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) that has been negotiated for the past several years. Our Chamber has keenly facilitated the dialog between Canada and India, and between Indo-Canadian small business owners and the Canadian negotiators to ensure that the ongoing negotiations sustain momentum, as well as reflect the needs and concerns of the business community. The new government has a great opportunity to give a meaningful direction to Canada’s relations with India, and we are confident that the upcoming visit of Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne’s visit to India in February will pave the way for more concrete measures to promote trade. I also want to emphasize that upcoming India Mission 2016 that I will be leading in January 2016 will have a sizeable presence of Ontario’s decision makers, including Hon. Patrick Brown, the leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario. I invite you to join us on the two-week, seven cities Indian Mission 2016.
Sanjay Makkar
Insight Small Business Needs to Innovate and Tap Export Markets By Benjamin Tal, CIBC Deputy Chief Economist Canada’s small-and-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) not only demonstrated resiliency during the Great Recession but led the way during the recovery. The secret behind this unprecedented ability of small business to overcome weak economic conditions over the past cycle is their comparatively low export orientation and high exposure to Canadian consumers, who by opening their wallets, almost singlehandedly moved Canada back into the growth column. The unprecedented strength in Canada's housing market has provided a major boost to SMEs, which employ close to 70 per cent of the workers in the construction and real estate industries. Together, these two industries created more than 200,000 new jobs, accounting for 17 per cent of the labour market's strength since the beginning of 2010. But, SMEs are entering a new reality Canadians are just about maxed out on debt-fueled consumption and our flirtation with a parity exchange rate is now a thing of the past. The renewed weakness in the loonie should be seen as an opportunity for SMEs to gain exposure to the strengthening external environment, in particular the U.S. and Europe. To maintain and build on the performance on the performance of the past cycle, SMEs must change their business models by both raising their propensity to export and increasing investment in research and development. Fortunately, those tasks are not mutually exclusive, as SMEs with higher export orientation also happen to be more innovative.
Canada-India Relationship to Remain Strong under New PM Trudeau By Bhim D. Asdhir, President & CEO Excel Funds Canada’s new Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is expected to maintain and enhance the strong relationship Canada has with India. Prior to being elected Prime Minister, Mr. Trudeau is reported in an August 15, 2015 Liberal Party Statement saying: “I was honoured to have met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi just a few months ago, where I reiterated my view that we must continue to strengthen and expand the economic and cultural links between our two countries. If elected, a Liberal government will preserve and grow our bilateral trade relationship.”1 In 2014, bilateral trade between the two countries amounted to $6.5 billion, up from $2.9 billion a decade ago, indicating an increasing trend. Imports and exports between the two countries are almost evenly split with Canadian imports from India valued at $3.3 billion and Canadian exports to India valued at $3.2 billion last year, up from $1.8 billion and $1.1 billion, respectively in 2005.2 Trudeau recognized India as “an enduring model of a strong, stable democracy in the world. Together, our nations stand as a testament to the fact that countries can prosper not in spite of their diversity, but precisely because of it.” In an effort to strengthen their relationship, Canada and India have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to examine the feasibility of a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA). The objectives of the CEPA are to broaden and deepen cooperation in all economic fields; encourage trade and investment flows, bilaterally and regionally; contribute to trade and investment facilitation through minimizing tariff and non-tariff barriers, and reducing any administrative costs; improve business climate in the two countries; and enhance transparency of regulation and promote cooperation among relevant institutions. Canada has also identified India as a priority country in its Global Markets Action Plan (GMAP) which seeks to target the markets that matter to Canadian businesses and to ensure that Canada’s interests are advanced in those markets. From Canada’s viewpoint, India is its largest trading partner in South Asia and it has accordingly been increasing its trade support network, which now includes close to 50
trade commissioners in eight different locations. India is also seen as a priority emerging market and one of Canada’s top three source countries for immigration and the secondlargest source of foreign students. More important, India is a longstanding bilateral partner with Canada, based on shared values and enriched by strong people-to-people ties, enhanced by an Indian diaspora in Canada of more than 1 million people.4 In the Liberal Party Statement issued on India’s Independence Day, Trudeau noted that “India and Canada are very fortunate to have strong ties, built in large part around the important contributions of the Indo-Canadian community to our national fabric.” Canada has its eyes on a large number of sectors in India, among them aerospace, agriculture and processed foods, automotive, defence and security, education, forestry and wood products, information and communications technology, transportation and infrastructure, financial services, life sciences, mining, oil and gas and sustainable technologies.4 However, its priorities for engagement in India are to become a long-term, reliable partner for India’s energy and food security; enhance its position as a valued destination and partner in critical areas of education and innovation; and become a preferred supplier of capital and technology for infrastructure development. Canada also sees Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India’ policy as a source of opportunity for Canadian businesses. The Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade notes that the transformation of India into a manufacturing hub while eliminating unnecessary laws and regulations, shortens bureaucratic processes and encourages government to be more transparent, responsive and accountable, ultimately making investment for Canadians easier. For Canadian investors in India, Canada and India have agreed to begin negotiations towards a Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (FIPA). The parties have pledged to work together to finalize the agreement on a priority basis. A bilateral FIPA will provide greater predictability and certainty for Canadian investors considering investment opportunities in India. Canada’s objective is to secure a comprehensive, highquality agreement which will protect investors through the establishment of a framework of legally binding rights and obligations. Besides the CEPA and the FIPA, Canada has several other agreements with India, including the Canada-India Audio-Visual Coproduction Treaty, Canada-India Nuclear Cooperation Agreement, Canada-India Social Security Agreement, Canada-India Agreement for Scientific and Technological Cooperation, and Canada-India Air Transport Agreement.4
Canada’s enhanced engagement with India has been underscored by a large number of official visits, including 32 visits by Canadian federal ministers and 13 visits by provincial premiers since 2006, along with visits by Prime Minister Stephen Harper in 2009 and 2012 and a visit by Governor General David Johnston in February 2014. India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi visited Canada in 2015. Ontario’s Prime Minister Kathleen Wynn has also proposed a visit to India. From all indications, Canada-India relations will only grow stronger under the new Trudeau government. 1
Liberal Party of Canada, Statement by Liberal Party of Canada Leader Justin Trudeau on India’s Independence Day.
2 Statistics 3
Canada.
Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Website.
4 Government
of Canada, India Market Access Plan 2015 – 2017.
Economic trends Road tax: A new report by Canada’s Ecofiscal Commission has recommended a radical shift away in conceptualizing a solution to the gridlock in most urban areas of the country – a road use tax. By one estimate, the gridlock cost Toronto $11 billion a year. The CBC quoted Chris Ragan of McGill University who heads the private ecofiscal think tank as saying, “We've got a very scarce commodity called road space during peak times, and it's unpriced. We don't price road access, and the cardinal rule in economics is if you have an unpriced resource it gets over-used.” Traffic congestion is the subject of the latest commission report, We Can’t Get There from Here: Why Pricing Traffic Congestion is Critical to Beating It. It's the second major study from the privately funded, non-partisan group of 10 economists backed by a cross-partisan advisory board that includes the likes of Reform party founder Preston Manning, former Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin, Suncor CEO Steve Williams and B.C.'s former NDP premier Mike Harcourt. Calgary housing market in doldrums: Calgary's housing market continues to see an increase in supply and declining prices. The downturn in Alberta’s economy is being reflected in Calgary’s residential rental market also. The Calgary Real Estate Board says the benchmark price for a home in the city is $453,000, which is down 1.2 percent from the same time last year. Last October, the vacancy rate in Calgary was a tight, 1.4 percent. This October, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation has put the vacancy rate at 5.3 percent for the city. Experts say many laid-off workers have left the city and the number of people who are moving here has gone down since the price of oil started to fall. Renters now have more inventory to choose from but the average rent is about the same as a year ago. Slump in manufacturing: Activity in Canada’s manufacturing sector slumped to a fresh record low in October, as heightened economic uncertainty and stubbornly low oil prices led to a sharp deterioration in business conditions. The CBC reported that the RBC Canadian Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ index (PMI), a measure of manufacturing business conditions, fell to a seasonally adjusted 48.0 last month from 48.6 in September. A reading below 50 indicates a slowdown in the rate of growth. The gauge has now come in below 50 in seven of the first 10 months of the year. Output plunged to 46.0, its lowest ever reading, while a jump in input costs squeezed operating margins.
September 2015 Programs & Events October 07, 2015 Mix & Mingle – YPE The Young Professionals and Entrepreneurs (YPE) committee of Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce (ICCC) held its kickoff event Mix and Mingle at 3 Brewers in downtown Toronto on Wednesday October 7. The event was attended by an unprecedented number of youngsters from different spheres. The reconstituted YPE committee had proactively worked to make the event a grand success, and their efforts were paid off handsomely when over a hundred guests showed up.
YPE team with ICCC President
Guests at YPE event
October 08, 2015 Boost your E-Commerce efforts - learn to sell online from the experts
ICCC leadership team presenting mementos to the speaker
The Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce’s Information & Communications Technology (ICT) committee organized a seminar on ‘e-Commerce: Mantra to Selling Online’ on Thursday October 8 at the ICCC headquarters. The panel of speakers at the seminar included Macr Smith, Director of Strategy & eCommerce Market Development, Canada Post; Niko Downie, Business Development Manager, Shopify; Vijay Thomas, Managing Partner, Tangentia. These tech gurus shared the roadmap for setting up your business for online shopping. This seminar provided an opportunity for business owners to learn how to reach out to their customers who are shopping online, on mobile devices and social media. They gave insights on the current e-Commerce trends in the Canadian marketplace and how to get started on the e-Commerce journey. October 15, 2015 ICCC's Open House and Networking Membership Augmentation Program kick-off meets with unprecedented support
Figure 1ICCC's Board of Directors presenting a plaque of appreciation to Mr. & Mrs. Jay Sethi of The Host- the sponsors of the Open House and Networking program
The Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce (ICCC) held its first Open House and Networking Event on October 15, 2015 as part of its 60-day Membership Augmentation Program.
With over 150 participants, the event was one the most successful Open Houses ever organized by the ICCC. Pertinently, a record number of participants that evening became members – over 30 regular members and 10 life members. October 28, 2015 The BDC Economic Outlook: Doing business in today's economy
ICCC team with Pierre Cléroux: (From l to r): Jagdish Bajaj, Abu Becker, Kanwar Dhanjal, Pierre Cléroux, Sanjay Makkar, Pappur Shankar, Sanjay Brahmbhatt
Pierre Cléroux, the Chief Economist of Business Development Canada (BDC) expressed optimism at the economic outlook for the near term at a special program on Economic Outlook: Doing Business in today’s economy, organized at the Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce (ICCC). Based on the BDC research, Mr. Cléroux predicted that the strong US economic outlook will work in favour of Canada because the US is Canada’s biggest trading partner, with 75 percent of Canadian trade focused with its southern neighbour.
October 29, 2015 Open House & Networking - II
Upcoming Events How to do business with Government, 04 Nov 2015 Energy Conservation + Alternative, 05 Nov 2015 EDC networking event, 12 Nov 2015 ICCC’s Open House & Networking – III, 13 Nov, 2015 Exclusive ICCC Event – Excel Billionaire leaders Fund, 17 Nov 2015 Be the right fit for business: CPA as a Career, 18 Nov 2015 Annual Winter Gala, 27 Nov 2015 For details please see www.iccconline.org ICCC members in news Kudos to Prafulbhai: ICCC’s veteran member Praful Lakhani was nominated to the Top 10 Commercial Mortgage Brokers of Canada by the prestigious by the mortgage sector’s trade journal Canadian Mortgage Professional. Read more about it here: CMP
Hargurdeep Singh: Mr. Hargurdeep Singh, ICCC’s Young Professional 2015 receives the prestigious Publication Award from The Ontario Association of Certified Engineering Technicians and Technologists, or OACETT. The award is granted to an individual or group to recognize his/her/their authorship of an outstanding feature length article, paper or work that was published during the relevant year. The work, whether published by the Association itself or by another public communications medium, could have been completed singularly or in concert with others.
For advertisement in the newsletter Please contact Mr. Pawan Chankotra at iccc@iccconline.org, or by calling 416-224-0090 Become a Member Membership is open to any person who is in agreement with the objectives of the IndoCanada Chamber of Commerce. The present membership represents a wide range of industries and professions. The benefits of joining the ICCC include:
Professional and personal development through business and social networking Exposure to business and professional opportunities in Canada, India and around the world Tickets to events at discounted member rates Invitations to selected free business programs An annual magazine Annual membership directory Opportunity to serve on various committees and be elected to the Board of Directors Benefits through the Chamber's Affinity Program
To join ICCC as member please click here Know your Organization Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce is a 38-year-old organization with twin objectives of fostering bilateral trade between Canada and India and creating entrepreneurial and professional opportunities for Indo-Canadians. It is run by an elected board with the help of various committees involving member. To know more about your organization, please visit: www.iccconline.org Suggestions Your board is committed to transform ICCC into a member-friendly, open, transparent, and truly a business organization working to achieve its mission and vision. Board is considering:
i) Publishing achievements of members in the upcoming issues of ICCC newsletter. Therefore, members are advised to send their achievements such as new position, additional qualification, awards etc. at iccc@iccconline.org. ii) Publishing articles on different topics involving trade, commerce, tax etc. Interested writers can send their articles (500 words) at iccc@iccconline.org iii) Starting blogs on Chamber's website. Send your resumes and subjects you wish to write a blog. iv) Constituting a newsletter committee. Those who have flare of writing, designing and passionate about this, send in their resumes at iccc@iccconline.org The board is here to steer the august body in the direction provided by articles and bylaws and ensuring that interest of various stakeholders is protected. Board invites your suggestions and opinions regarding future events, newsletter content, and ask you to get engaged more and more and participate in Chamber events. You are the true ambassador of Chamber and your board is working for you in. Please feel free in contacting any board member. Please feel free in sending your suggestions and recommendations at: president@iccconline.org or iccc@iccconline.org.
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