Mayor John Tory says that business and political leaders in India increasingly view Toronto as an “an island of stability” in a “world beset by polarization.”
Tory made the comment to CP24 from New Delhi as he continued a 10-day trade mission to the southeast Asian country that began on Wednesday.
The stated purpose of the trade mission is to build relationships with firms in India’s financial and technology sectors and convince them of the merits of Toronto as a place to do business. Tory is also promoting Toronto’s film industry to Bollywood filmmakers and production companies as part of the trip.
Economic Development Committee Chair Michael Thompson, newly elected councillor Neethan Shan and representatives from Toronto’s business community are also participating in the trade mission.
“They (business leaders) feel they would be at home in Toronto and they think that in a world beset by a lot of polarization and a lot of turmoil that Toronto and Canada stand out as an island of stability,” Tory told CP24. “It is very encouraging to me that people see Toronto as being different and that this has really piqued their interest in investing in Toronto.”
On Thursday, Tory met with Canada’s High Commissioner to India Nadir Patel and then delivered a keynote speech at the Observer Research Foundation, which is an economic think tank in New Delhi.
Tory also visited the offices of India’s largest mobile payment services platform Paytm, where the company announced that it is making its bill payment service available to Canadians.
Paytm has an office on Adelaide Street West in Toronto.
Speaking with CP24 about his experience so far, Tory said that business leaders in India have a relatively positive view of Toronto but he said that it falls to him to make them aware of the city’s story and the advantages it offers to business intent on accessing the lucrative North American market.
“They know it’s the biggest city, they know it’s the financial capital in Canada and they tend to know somebody who lives in Toronto because of course we are privileged to have a big Indo-Canadian population but they don’t really know about the extent of our financial industries, the extent of our life sciences and the tech sector that is booming,” he said.
In addition to New Delhi, Tory is also expected to visit Hyderabad and Mumbai in India and Colombo and the Northern Province in Sri Lanka.
This is his eight trade mission since taking office.
