By Postmedia News

Mayor Dianne Watt’s first business mission to India, beginning next week, is targeting to bring about $20 million worth of business to Surrey.
The delegation will visit nine Indian cities including Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Chandigarh, Jalandhar, Amritsar  and Ludhiana, during their 11-day passage through India.
The Mayor’s Business Mission to India is designed to facilitate business deals between local and Indian companies to achieve investment and job creation in Surrey, and to open market opportunities for Surrey-based companies.
“The City of Surrey has many connections to the country of India, both socially and economically, and we continue to identify ways to recognize, celebrate and further our bond with the world’s largest democracy,” said Watts, who was elected in 2005 as Surrey’s first female mayor.
“With about a third of Surrey’s population of 465,000 residents being of South Asian descent, it was a natural fit for us to look to India to further partnership opportunities that will create jobs and attract investment to our city,” she said.
While many government-led business/trade missions are looking to China, Watts and her team are taking a made-in-Surrey approach, “designed to deliver the best results for our residents and business owners.”
The budget for the trip is $128,000 which includes travel costs for the mayor, three councillors – Linda Hepner, Tom Gill and Barinder Rasode and three staff members.
It’s a bargain for the taxpayers considering the team’s target.
“In fact, we’re setting a bold but achievable target to achieve $20 million in direct economic generation to Surrey resulting from the Mission, which is extremely targeted in its business-to-business objectives,” said Watts.
“My number one priority for this mission remains the economy, including working towards achieving access to India’s wood market for Surrey forestry companies,” she said.
“With a port and Canada’s second largest border crossing manufacturing and exporting are critical sectors for our city, and I am happy we have secured significant meetings with both elected officials and companies in India in order to create jobs and foster economic growth for the region.”
 “I’m pleased the CEO’s of some of the most dynamic wood manufacturing companies in BC are participating in this Mission, and I look forward to achieving real advancements in positioning BC companies at the forefront of the rapidly expanding Indian wood market.”
Surrey’s mission to India comes amidst calls by India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to the nation’s 27-million strong Indian Diaspora to have “deeper engagement” in his country’s development process.
The Indian economy is expected to record 8.5 percent growth this year while Canada has made a commitment with India to raise bilateral trade to $15 billion within next five years. The bilateral trade between the two countries is now just over $4 billion per year.
Presently, around 250 small and big Canadian companies operate in India. Ottawa’s objective is to have at least 750 Canadian companies in India.
For Rob Mackie, chairman of bioLytical Laboratories, the mission provides a pedestal to search out potential government and private partners to establish an assembly plant in India. The company produces a rapid HIV test developed that was recently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The INSTI HIV Rapid Antibody Test, which is available in more than 50 countries, is designed to detect antibodies to HIV-1 and HIV-2 in one minute. The next fastest tests take 20 minutes
Some 2.5 million Indians are HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) positive, and the country’s northeast accounts for about 45,000 such people. There are fears of a worsening AIDS epidemic, especially because of the country’s huge migratory labor force and transient population.
“ I want to build an assembly and packaging plant in India to make the instant test kit widely available at an affordable rate,” said Mackie, adding the facility will hire about 100 people.
“Ninety percent of the infections can be tackled with seek and treat programs,” said Mackie, whose test kits are so robust that they can be transported around India easily.
“We have spent millions on developing this test kit and now is the time to get it out to as many people as possible in the most affordable way…Given the enquiries from medical companies over the last few weeks, there is tremendous interest in India for our homegrown BC product,” said Mackie.
Education is one area where Canadian companies can play a big role in India. India needs about $150 billion of investment in the next 10 years to build quality education infrastructure in the country.
Kalyan Sundaram of the Canada India Foundation said astute initiatives by Canadian universities and colleges over the past year will yield impressive results this year in the education sector.
Of the 130,000 students from India who enroll in post-secondary institutions overseas annually, only about 3,500 study in Canada
On the mission are Simon Fraser University (SFU) and Kwantlen Polytechnic University, both of which are looking for partners in India.
Nimal Rajapakse, Dean of Applied Sciences at SFU said he will be interested in meeting with Indian companies that can accept interns from his university for research and development projects.
In addition to signing a letter of intent with the Chandigarh-based Indian Institute of Technology, SFU will be developing strategic partnerships with select Indian universities to cash in on the huge Indian education market.
The Surrey mission to India has also garnered high praise from private colleges like Sprott-Shaw, which are not on the current trip.
“Trade missions like the one led by Mayor Watts will showcase the educational infrastructure of British Columbia,” said Sprott-Shaw president Patrick Dang, whose target is to have 10 educational joint-ventures in various Indian cities over the next few years.
Bollywood, which makes about 2,000 films a year in Mumbai’s $1.3 billion industry and the fledgling Indian animation industry is also on the radar of Watts who wants to make Surrey more of a film destination.
Richard Brownsey, president and CEO of B.C. Film said he has his work cut out for him in Mumbai and the IT hub of Bangalore.
“Canada and India are working on a co-production agreement and my objective is to gather market intelligence and analyse the potential for Suyyer and the rest of B.C.,” said Brownsey, adding he has a large number of meetings lined up during the trip.
“One area we are particularly interested in is looking at Indian and BC companies working together in the field of digital animation,” he said.
Robert Park, CEO and President of FINCAD, said the Indian economy is growing strongly, wealth creation is accelerating and its financial markets are maturing.
“As a company that serves the financial services industry this creates an excellent opportunity for FINCAD,” he said, adding FINCAD’s sales to clients in India have tripled over the past 3 years.
FINCAD has approximately 15 clients and 2 evolving partnerships with two large IT firms in India.
“Given its ethnic diversity and significant well-educated South-Asian population, Surrey can provide an excellent gateway to the North American markets.”
Sriram Iyer, President & CEO of ICICI Bank Canada, India’s largest private sector bank, said India is a logical trading partner for many Surrey-based businesses because of the linkages that already exist between residents of Indian origin and their networks back in their native country.
“We see this trip as a great opportunity to build relationships by partnering with Canadian companies interested in venturing into the Indian market...Our expertise and on-the-ground presence in both markets position us as the logical choice to provide guidance and insight to companies looking to invest or start an operation in Canada and in India.”
Renewable energy and clean transportation technology are  the  focus of India’s $2.3 trillion energy investment plan over the next two decades.
This bodes well for Cummins Westport Inc. (CWI)  which manufactures and sells the world’s widest range of low-emissions alternative fuel engines for commercial transportation applications such as trucks and buses
Following the successful demonstration of clean transportation technology in New Delhi of natural gas-fuelled buses powered by Cummins Westport engines, CWI has sold 500 low-floor buses equipped with its engines running on clean burning CNG to the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) followed few months later by an additional purchase order of 3125 buses.
“Westport is actively looking for Indian corporate partners who are interested in working with us to build the market for alternative fuels in India. The Surrey Business Mission offers a tremendous opportunity to initiate the first contacts with these potential companies,” said Nicholas Sonntag, president of Westport Asia, who will be on the trip.
It has also been estimated that wind energy could meet almost 24 percent of India’s electricity demand by 2030.
Dave Rankin of the Surrey-based Endurance Wind Power, which manufactures wind turbines said India provides several opportunities for both the distribution of his products as well as the manufacturing of component parts.
“By travelling with Mayor Watts and her team, Indian businesses will see the value the city of Surrey places on my company,” said Rankin.
For Mayor Watts, this is what the mission to India is all about – thinking locally, acting globally.

Indian Cities on the agenda

Mumbai

Mumbai, is India’s commercial capital and ranks among the world’s top ten trade centres. The city contributes 25 per cent of industrial output and 70 per cent of capital transactions to India’s economy. The city, with a population of 19 million, is also home to Bollywood, the largest film industry in the world. Mumbai accounts for 14 per cent of India’s income tax collections and 37 per cent of the corporate tax collections in the country.

New Delhi

New Delhi, is India’s national capital has the second highest GDP in the country. And although it cannot rival Mumbai in terms of contribution to the growth of the Indian economy, Delhi is no pushover. Delhi’s key service industries, backed by as strong and well laid out infrastructure, include IT, telecommunications, hotels, banking, media and tourism. The capital’s retail industry is one of the fastest growing industries in India.

Bangalore

With an estimated population of 6.5 million, Bangalore is one of India’s most populous and richest cities. Bangalore’s main business activity is information technology and information technology-enabled services. Being the leading contributor to India’s IT industry, the city is often referred to as the Silicon Valley of India. Bangalore is also a hub of India’s biotechnology industries and home to the Headquarters of the Indian Space Research Organization.

Chandigarh

Chandigarh is the capital of two state governments, Punjab and Haryana. The planned city in the foothills of the Himalayas is emerging as a regional hub in the areas of service industry, education, health, information technology, food and vegetable processing. The Chandigarh Administration plans to set up a multi- institutional Education City at the Sarangpur area. It ranks first in India in the Human Development Index, quality of life and e-readiness.

Ludhiana

Known for its bicycles and textile Ludhiana is the largest city in Punjab. It is a major industrial and educational center and is the crossroads of many different cultures. Ludhiana is known for its popular politics, real estate and famous Punjabis who have migrated all over the world, including Surrey. The International Finance Corporation (IFC) has said Ludhiana, is the easiest location to do business in India. , Ludhiana is also a major centre for cast iron and other foundry materials.

Jalandhar

Jalandhar has more than one hundred major industries and about 20,000 small-scale industries. It is most famous for its sports goods industry, which in India has witnessed a phenomenal growth over the past five decades. Jalandhar ranks second in India in the rate of urbanization. It is one of the biggest centres of the vernacular press in India. Jalandhar’s other major industries include the manufacture of rubber products, auto-parts industrial and leather goods.

Amritsar

Amritsar, home to Sikh’s holiest shrine, the Golden Temple is one of the most ancient and fascinating cities of India. The Golden Temple and other places of historical interest sustain a large segment of the local economy. The area has also seen a rise in real estate development as the Punjab government pumps tourism dollars into Amritsar. Air India has decided to resume its Amritsar-Toronto direct flight from this month, which will boost India-Canada links.

India by the numbers

According to the International Monetary Fund, in the year 2011 global economy will grow to 4.4 percent, while India will grow at 8.4 percent for the same calendar year.
Ten of the world’s thirty fastest-growing cities are in India. By 2030, India is expected to have 68 cities with a population exceeding one million people, thirteen cities with more than four million people and six mega cities with populations of ten million or more.
Over the next 20 years, India will construct 700-900 million square feet of office space (approximately the size of Chicago);  pave 2.5 billion square meters of roads and tunnel 4,600 miles of subways and metros - the distance from New York to Kiev.
India, over the next two decades will pump and sanitize water; electrify with nuclear, clean, and alternative energy; provide telecommunication services to the 68 cities in India with one million plus people.
Canada has made a commitment with India to raise bilateral trade to $15 billion within next five years. The bilateral trade between the two countries is now just over $4 billion per year. Presently, around 250 small and big Canadian companies operate in India. Ottawa’s objective is to have at least 750 Canadian companies in India.
India needs about $150 billion of investment in the next 10 years to build quality education infrastructure in the country. Of the 130,000 students from India who enroll in post-secondary institutions overseas annually, only about 3,500 study in Canada.
India earns about 27 percent of its foreign exchange through textiles exports. The sector contributes nearly 14 percent of total industrial production of the country and around 5.1 percent of the GDP. It provides direct or indirect employment to over 90 millioN PEOPLE.