With improvement in the pandemic situation, a delegation of more than 35 Indian IT companies is visiting Canada to explore business expansion opportunities, including possibility of servicing about 50 countries through Canada.
The visit, facilitated by the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom), is part of the industry body’s ongoing strategic partnership with the Government of Canada, said Shivendra Singh, Vice President, Nasscom.
“Indian IT companies have enhanced their footprint in Canada with four new expansions announced in 2021 alone,” he said.
“Overall Indian IT companies in Canada are already generating over 20,000 jobs and helping Canadian companies compete in the global market,” he added.
Acting High Commissioner for Canada to India Deirdre Kent said the visit would present a great opportunity for Indian companies to explore the advantages that Canada offered to expand their businesses through partnerships, access to innovations, and international markets. “By having a base in Canada, today’s globally-minded Indian technology companies can gain access to 51 international markets, 1.5 billion consumers, and a $51 trillion combined GDP through Canada’s 15 trade agreements,” she added.
Mr. Singh said Canada had always been seen in conjunction with the U.S. market, but this time the focus was only on Canada and Nasscom received interests from about 100 companies to be part of the engagement. Most of the participating companies were small and medium enterprise (SME) ranging from ₹5-7 crore up to ₹250 crore in size.
“India and Canada share strong complementarities between their well-developed IT ecosystems. They also host strong and diverse start-up ecosystems. There are excellent opportunities of collaboration between India and Canada in a range of sectors, such as AI, sustainable technologies, digital healthcare, agro-tech and clean technologies,” Mr. Singh said.
He added that the Canadian market was a very important market in the North American region. “Typically, the model has been that Indian tech companies look at serving the U.S. market through Canada. So if you’re looking at New York, Toronto is just about an hour from New York, the Seattle is very close to Vancouver. A lot of action happens within 100 km of the border of the U.S. on the Canadian side,” he said.
