McCallion pitches GTA quality of life in India
As reported on the front page of today's Toronto Star Business section.
We're a hard sell in India
Ontario lost ground after closing office in the early '90s
McCallion mission pitches quality of life, proximity to U.S.
Feb. 20, 2006. 06:56 AM
PRITHI YELAJA
STAFF REPORTER
Mumbai, INDIA—Expanding our participation in global markets rather than relying on trade with the United States is vital to Canada's economic future, says Ontario's economic development minister.
"For the better part of the last decade, we were missing in action," said Economic Trade and Development Minister Joe Cordiano, who is to open a new trade office in the Indian capital of New Delhi today.
"We need to step up our efforts in the global economy," said Cordiano, adding that Canada has been too narrowly focused on the American marketplace until now.
The delegation will seek to capitalize on India's growing economic prospects and promote Ontario's image as a place to do business.
Cordiano flew to New Delhi to inaugurate the facility, which is located in the same compound as the Canadian High Commission on Shantipath Road on embassy row.
"India is a burgeoning economy and we can ill-afford not to be there. We need to expand our two-way trade with India, which is a large player in the global economy," said Cordiano, whose one-week visit to India will also include a stop in Mumbai to call on some of the country's top business leaders.
Though there has been some volatility, Canada's exports to India have been growing about 8 per cent annually since the mid-1980s.
Ontario previously had a trade office in India, but it was shut down in 1993 by the NDP government as a cost-cutting measure. But with liberalization of its markets, India's economy took off in the early 1990s and European countries as well as others including Australia and the United States set up operations here to get in on the boom.
Quebec Premier Jean Charest led a delegation to India last month. Manitoba Premier Gary Doer was here last week, meeting with Bollywood producers to pitch his province as a place to shoot movies. Premier Dalton McGuinty is expected to visit India early next year.
Competition to do business here as well as to attract Indian investment abroad is keen. The Confederation of Indian Industry, for example, hosts on average one foreign delegation a day.
The GTMA (Greater Toronto Marketing Alliance) — which represents 29 municipalities including those in York, Peel and Durham Regions as well as the City of Toronto — is also making a bid to attract Indian investment.
The 22-member delegation, led by Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion, is on a 10-day mission to Mumbai and New Delhi to convince Indian companies to set up shop in the GTA. It is the team's second trip to India. The first, last year, was more exploratory in nature, said McCallion, adding that while she experienced culture shock last year upon arriving in India, the transition was easier this time.
The team made one pitch last week in Mumbai at the annual 4-day meeting of NASSCOM (the National Association of Software and Service Companies), held at the swanky 5-star Grand Hyatt Hotel in North Mumbai, near the airport.
The association has 600 members including India's largest high-tech firms such as Tata, Infosys and Satyam, all of which already have offices in Canada.
The alliance hired a consulting firm to target 40 small-to-medium-sized Indian software firms at the conference that are likely candidates to set up operations in Greater Toronto. They ended up meeting face to face with about half of those targeted.
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`Basically what we're saying is the GTA is a better alternative to the U.S. It's easier to get immigration and set up business'
Gerald Pisarzowski
Greater Toronto Marketing Alliance
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However, given that Canada is a little known entity here, let alone Toronto, and with stiff competition from other foreign delegations at the conference, including Malaysia, the United Kingdom and Australia, the selling of the GTA was no easy feat.
"Our message to them is to use the GTA as their near-shore location to the U.S. as well as to expand their business in Canada," said Karen Campbell, president and CEO of the GTMA.
"Basically what we're saying is the GTA is a better alternative to the U.S. It's easier to get immigration and set up business," said Gerald Pisarzowski, the GTMA's vice-president of business development.
The intrepid McCallion, who was on the go from early morning to late night networking at the galas, acted as brand ambassador for the team.
"Even with all its weaknesses, Canada is still the best country in the world (in which) to live. And the GTA has endless opportunities for companies (that) want to do business. It's where all the action is in Canada," she told potential recruits.
Aside from its close proximity to the United States, the team highlighted the GTA's stature as "the economic engine" of Canada, its ethnic diversity, quality of life, skilled labour force, solid infrastructure in terms of roads, airports and telecommunications, and the fact that the area is home to 40 per cent of Canadian company headquarters.
However, the team's panel presentation extolling the virtues of the GTA on the final day of the conference attracted only five people. It was upstaged by a speech given at the conference by the president of India, which due to a last minute schedule change started at the same time as the GTMA's presentation.
Saurabh Mehta, owner of Avani Cimcon Technologies Ltd., a small software company in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, about 450 kilometres northwest of Mumbai, skipped the president's speech to meet with GTMA members.
Mehta, whose $2 million (U.S.) company specializes in software solutions for the financial services sector such as banks and insurance companies, employs 100 people in Ahmedabad.
The company has served U.S. clients out of an office in Santa Rosa, Calif., since 1993, "but doing business in the U.S. is getting more and complicated due to security concerns after 9/11," said Mehta, adding that the wait just to meet with U.S. embassy officials in New Delhi for an interview for a visa is six months.
He is considering either Vancouver or Toronto as near-shore locations from which to expand his business in the U.S. and was impressed with the GTMA's showcase effort.
"They were very proactive in seeking me out and very helpful," said Mehta after their three-hour meeting. Toronto "seems to have a nice, clean environment overall. The quality of life sounds much better than in the U.S. and subsidized health care is the biggest asset."
Mehta said he would hire five people for his Canadian office, training them in India. his meeting with the GTMA convinced him to visit Toronto in May to "see whether on the ground it's as good as they say it is."
While trying to attract India-based firms to Canada is a good thing, it also poses a competitive threat, said David Ticolll of Information Technology Association of Canada, a lobby group whose 1,300 members include RIM and Nortel.
Canada stands to lose 3.5 million jobs due to outsourcing, said Ticoll, who was also at NASSCOM.
"The question is where can Canada compete and win in this new environment. We need to focus on those globally vibrant industries where we can be Number 1 or Number 2 in the world," he said.
Louroz