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Canada energy dept, Ficci ink pact

BS Economy Bureau in New Delhi

The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Natural Resources Canada for sharing information in the field of industrial energy efficiency between the two countries.

The MoU was signed by Ficci president R S Lodha and Irwin Itzkovitch, assistant deputy minister for natural resources, Canada, at the interactive meeting on India-Canada Business Opportunities organised by Ficci.

"The tie-up aims at improving industrial energy efficiency through reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from industries in both the countries," Lodha said.

"The tie-up would pave way for linking energy efficiency action for enhancing productivity and competitiveness," he added.

NRCans involvement comes under the auspices of the Canadian Industry Program for Energy Conservation while that of Ficci is under Indian Industry Program for Energy Conservation.

NRCan and Ficci will exchange with technical information, case studies and best practice guides.

Herb Dhaliwal, natural resource minister of Canada, said that special fields like energy, geomatics and geoscience will be the future focus in bilateral economic cooperation.

"We want to double our existing bilateral trade by the next five years," he said. He also said that Canada wants to make India a hub for tapping the potential of the south-east Asian market.

"Indian investors can also look at us for the possible hub for tapping the south American market," Dhaliwal said.

The total value of bilateral trade has more than doubled from $ 468 million in 1990-91 to $ 1.1 billion in 2001-02.

In 2001-02, India's exports stood at $ 584 million as against $ 529 million imports from Canada.

Canada's share in India's trade stood at 1.25 per cent in 2002 as against 0.23 per cent Indian share in Canadas trade.

Indias export basket in 2001-02 comprised of ready-made cotton goods, cotton yarn and fabrics, drugs and pharmaceuticals, metals, gems and jewellery, handicrafts.

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