Canada keen to invest in mining, agriculture

Canada is keen to invest and cooperate in core sectors like agriculture and mining in West Bengal.

"We are interested to cooperate and invest in core sectors like agriculture and mining in the state," said Gerald Keddy, parliamentary secretary to minister of international trade, government of Canada.

West Bengal too is aggressively pushing Canada to invest in sectors like mining, manufacturing and, particularly, food processing.

Keddy said the delegation had met ministers in Delhi and "we are eager to cooperate in sectors like energy, oil and gas and banking as these are the potential sectors in Canada."

He pointed out that India has a bilateral trade target to reach $14 billion in the next five years from the present $5 billion. "In 2008, Canadian export to India was $2.4 billion which was a 30% increase over 2007," Keddy said at a summit organised by Confederation of Indian Industry and the Canadian High Commission to inaugurate the Canada Trade Office in Kolkata which will also look after the north-eastern region.

The state's Commerce and Industry minister Nirupam Sen who was also present at the summit urged Canada to invest mainly in the mining, manufacturing and food processing sectors in the state. He added that in case of food processing only 2% is processed and the rest wasted, so the potential is huge.