By Gurmukh Singh
Toronto, Sep 21 (IANS) Canada will officially open its trade office in Ahmedabad Friday.

Stockwell Day, Canadian minister for international trade, will inaugurate the office to coincide with the penultimate day of Navratri. Though no official announcement has yet been made about his visit, official sources told IANS that the minister will fly to Ahmedabad for the inauguration ceremony.

Since Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced last year to deepen trade ties with India, Canada has already opened two trade offices in Hyderabad and Kolkata. This will be the third such office to be opened in India. Prior to these three offices, Canada had a trade office in Bangalore.

“We simply as a country cannot afford to miss out on India’s phenomenal growth,” the Canadian prime minister had said at the annual gala dinner of the Canada-India Foundation here last year.

“Our government is preparing to open trade offices in two emerging commercial centres of India,” Harper had added.

The Hyderabad trade office was opened by the Canadian trade minister in January during his state visit to India. The Kolkata office was opened earlier this month by Gerald Keddy, parliamentary secretary to the trade minister.

Earlier, the office was to be opened by Canadian Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon in March, but his visit was cancelled because of the Indian general election.

“The opening of a trade office in Gujarat fulfils our long-standing demand. It is a great news for Canadian companies looking for trade with India’s fastest growing state,” said Winnipeg-based Hemant Shah who lobbied with the Canadian government for the Ahmedabad office.

Canada’s top companies such as Bombardier and McCain Foods have plants in Gujarat.

Though the annual trade between the two countries is still less than $4.5 billion, Canada is pulling out all the stops to take advantage of the huge Indian market. Reversing its policy last year, Canada backed India at the Nuclear Suppliers Groups (NSG) to allow it access to nuclear technology and fuel.

It followed this up in January by resuming nuclear ties with India which were frozen after New Delhi conducted its first nuclear test in 1974. The Canadian nuclear industry is eyeing business worth billion of dollars through sale of uranium and nuclear technology to India.

India and Canada are also working on a free trade agreement.

(Gurmukh Singh can be contacted at gurmukh.s@ians.in)