CEO Mission to India Seeks to Strengthen Trade and Investment Ties with One of the World’s Fastest-Growing Economies

March 9, 2007

A high-level delegation of Canadian business leaders will arrive in Delhi this weekend on a five-day mission to promote stronger trade and investment ties between Canada and India. Organized by the Canadian Council of Chief Executives (CCCE), the mission represents the first private sector visit to India by a broadly based group of chief executives and senior executives from among Canada’s largest enterprises.

“We are mounting this mission at a time when India is transforming at a meteoric pace,” said CCCE Chief Executive and President Thomas d’Aquino. “The Canadian business leaders who are visiting India at this time understand fully that Canada needs to accelerate the development of the Canada-India bilateral economic relationship and to open new avenues for cooperation.”

In addition to Mr. d’Aquino, CCCE members who are participating in the mission include: Jack Cockwell, Group Chairman, Brookfield Asset Management Inc. (Member Emeritus); Marcel Coutu, President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Oil Sands Limited; J. Bruce Flatt, President and Chief Executive Officer, Brookfield Asset Management Inc., Fred Green, President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Pacific Railway Company; James Kinnear, President and Chief Executive Officer, Pengrowth Management Limited; Jacques Lamarre, President and Chief Executive Officer, SNC-Lavalin Group Inc., and Vice Chair, CCCE; Ronald Mannix, Chairman, Coril Holdings Ltd.; and Larry Barrett, Chair, Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters, and President, Emerson Electric Canada Limited.

Other CCCE member companies represented on the mission include Sun Life Financial Inc., Alcan Inc. and CAE Inc.

A key objective of the CCCE mission is to deepen commercial linkages with Indian business leaders. In Delhi, the delegation will take part in the first Canada-India CEO Roundtable with the Confederation of Indian Industry.

While in the Indian capital, members of the CCCE mission also will meet with political leaders and senior government officials. Later, in Mumbai, the CCCE delegation will make calls on several of India’s major enterprises, including the Birla Group, the Tata Group, ICICI Bank, and Reliance Industries.

Two-way trade between Canada and India increased by 25 percent last year compared to 2005, and has grown by almost 80 percent over the past four years. Nevertheless, Mr. d’Aquino said the two countries have still only scratched the surface of the enormous potential for enhanced bilateral commercial relations. India is the world’s second most-populous country and one of its fastest-growing economies, registering more than 8 percent GDP growth in each of the past three years.

The CCCE, founded in 1976, is Canada’s private sector leader in the promotion of international trade and investment liberalization. The CCCE is composed of 150 chief executive officers of major enterprises and leading entrepreneurs. Member companies collectively administer $3.2 trillion in assets, have annual revenues of more than $750 billion and account for a significant majority of Canada’s private sector investment, exports, training and research and development.

In addition to Mr. d’Aquino and Mr. Lamarre, the members of the CCCE’s Executive Committee are: Chair, Gordon M. Nixon, President and Chief Executive Officer, Royal Bank of Canada; and Vice Chairs Dominic D’Alessandro, Paul Desmarais, Jr., Hartley T. Richardson and Annette Verschuren, the chief executives respectively of Manulife Financial, Power Corporation of Canada, James Richardson & Sons, Limited and The Home Depot Canada.