Canada keen to partner with Bhubaneswar on Smart Cities, IT and education

Canada has identified smart-city development, information technology (IT) and education as potential areas of collaboration and investment with Bhubaneswar.

A first-of-its-kind day-long roadshow 'Brand Canada' jointly hosted by Indo-Canadian Business Chamber (ICBC) and Air Canada and backed by the Trade Commissioner service of the Canada government reached out to the business and trade community here, showcasing areas of partnership.

Scott McLeod, Second Secretary (Commercial) and Trade Commissioner said, “Bhubaneswar, which happens to be the capital and the largest city in Odisha, is a flourishing and rapidly growing hub for IT. With funding opportunities now made accessible for emerging start-ups by the Odisha government, the state and the city of Bhubaneswar in itself is one of the most preferred destinations for a sustainable business. The state offers an industry ready workforce with a balance-sheet advantage matched by few. The recent trends have seen that IT and various other fields of engineering has been one of the key attraction points of the city”.

“The Toronto based IBI Group has also been an essential part of the Smart City project by the Government of India. IBI brought the experience of working on brownfield Smart City projects through the Bhubaneswar Smart City Project as its overall Programme Management Consultant (PMC). Now, through Brand Canada, we want to ride on this trend and engage in strong bilateral ties with the city”, he added.

Debjani Pal, Trade Assistant at Study in Canada said, “The capital city of Odisha has some of the best universities in the country, such as the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bhubaneswar, National Institute of Technology (NIT) Rourkela, Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT), National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) Bhubaneswar, to name a few. Education is one of the major areas in which Canada wants to contribute and the country is one of the more feasible options for studies both in terms of expenditure and in terms of getting habituated to the environment. Canada also provides a number of work study options and has an Indo-Canadian population, which is very beneficial. Bhubaneswar being one of the fastest growing cities of the state and the country, gives them that leverage in terms of acquiring better education and contributing back to the Indian economy.”

Top Canadian companies like Air Canada and IBI Group participated at the roadshow. In Odisha, the MSME (micro, small & medium enterprises) committee of the Odisha State Council of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (Ficci), Odita Trust, OM Oil & Flour Mills Ltd (Ruchi) and Odisha chapter of Federation of Indian Exporters Organization (FIEO) attended the interactive event.