By IANS
Toronto : Trade and investment between India and Canada is expected to shoot up to C$10 billion a year quickly, according to Ajit Khanna, the outgoing president of the India-Canada Chamber of Commerce (ICCC).
In 2006, trade and investment between both countries totalled $3.5 billion and the bilateral trade between both countries is currently increasing by 22 per cent a year.
"With some efforts, we can increase it by 35 per cent. And very quickly you will achieve C$10 billion," Khanna said at the 30th anniversary celebration of ICCC here Saturday night.
Some 1,200 guests attended the function. India's Minister of Commerce and Industry Kamal Nath and Canada's Minister for International Trade David Emerson were also present.
Emerson said that he found India "very, very positive when you consider we had a really underdeveloped market there for the last 10 to 15 years".
Nath noted that there was a bright future for India-Canada economic partnership.
Several Indo-Canadian businessmen and entrepreneurs were honoured at the function: Bhim Asdhir got the ICCC Male Entrepreneur Award; Raj Anand the Professional Male of the Year award; Manishi Sagar the Female Entrepreneur of the Year award; Bhudendra Doobay the Humanitarian Award; Shelia Kumari Singh the Female Professional of the Year award; Bharat Masrani the Corporate Executive award; Ankit Kapur the Young Achiever award; Shivendera Dwivedi, the Humanitarian of the Year award; and Nishith Goel received the Technology Award.