Canada, Nov 17: Uranium-rich Canada hopes to sign an agreement soon with India for civilian nuclear cooperation. “I sincerely hope our government will soon conclude a civilian nuclear agreement which will enable development of nuclear power for civil use,” said visiting Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Monday.
India has already signed civil nuclear agreements with the US, Russia and France after a three-decade supply ban was lifted in September 2008. Canada is in discussion with India and China to promote nuclear power generation to help meet rising energy demand in these countries.
Both the nations had signed memorandum of understanding early this year, which will enable Canada to facilitate the planned 25 to 30 Indian reactors. India has proposed nuclear capacity addition of 63,000 mega watt by 2032. Harper, who was accompanied by Canadian minister for international trade Stockwell Day, also announced that foreign investment promotion agreement would also be signed between the two nations to safeguard investments.
“Bonds between us are indeed strong and plentiful. But the untapped potential in our relationship is also undeniable. Let us do the maths. Between us, our combined GDP is well on its way to $4 trillion. Yet, at the moment, we are only doing $5 billion worth of business per year.”
The bilateral trade with Canada was about $3.8 billion in 2008-09 with Canada running a trade surplus of a little more than $1 billion. India proposes to increase its exports of industrial and agricultural goods to Canada and seek better opportunities for its service professionals.
Indian exports to Canada consist of textiles and apparels, jewellery, chemicals and iron & steel products. On the other hand, Canada’s exports include aerospace and aircraft parts, cereals, vegetables, fertilisers, pulp & paper products, machineries, electrical and nuclear boiler, ores, slag and nickel products.
Meanwhile, Harper also met Wipro chief Azim Premji, Cipla chairman YK Hameed, Tata Capital managing director Praveen Kadle, legal consultant Zia Mody, M&M ED Arun Nanda, deputy chairman & managing director of Zensar Technologies Ganesh Natarajan, JNPT chairman SS Hussain, Ficci’s western region chairman Sushil Jiwarajka, Tata Realty & Infrastructure managing director and chief executive officer Sanjay Ubale and Indian Merchants’ Chamber president Gul Kripalani.
–Agencies