PM Narendra Modi meets Canadian business leaders, seeks investments

TORONTO: Pitching for Canadian investment for his 'Make in India' initiative, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today held a meeting with Canada's business leaders.

"Business before breakfast PM @narendramodi meets bankers, pension fund managers & pitches for investments from Canada," Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin tweeted after Modi held a roundtable conference with them.

Modi was accompanied by his Canadian counterpart Stephen Harper during the meeting.

"Demand to do business with India has gone up exponentially; India now on top of our list - Canadian investors to PM," he said.

He also met officials of the Pension Fund of Canada which has the corpus of 200 million dollars and discussed how to ease the investment opportunities for it.

Canada's pension funds include some of the world's biggest investors.

"They are looking for avenues where they can get secure and safe returns over the long term. They realise India is one of the countries that offers what they are looking for," India's High Commissioner in Canada, Vishnu Prakash, had said yesterday.

Modi, who arrived in Canada yesterday on the last leg of his three-nation tour, has made a strong pitch for 'Make in India' initiative.

The bilateral trade increased to USD 5.18 billion in 2013-14 from USD 4.83 billion in previous year.

Modi yesterday said that environment is changing in India and highlighted that various international agencies including World Bank and IMF have said that India is the fastest growing economy.

India is focusing on the manufacturing sector and Canada has raw material, Modi had said.