Union Minister of Industry and Textiles, Mr. Anand Sharma has suggested that public and private pension funds in Canada may enter India through Infrastructure Debt Fund. Mr. Sharma forwarded this suggestion in a recent meeting with Mr. Edward Fast, Canadian Minister of International Trade.
India and Canada have signed a tripartite agreement for an infrastructure debt funding mechanism which will lenders and borrowers through IDF. The IDF would source most of its funding from pension funds, insurance funds and sovereign wealth funds. Owing to Canada’s healthy banking sector and private equity funds, Mr. Sharma also encouraged greater Canadian investment into India.
Mr. Anand Sharma also expressed satisfaction over the negotiations on Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA). “The negotiations on CEPA are proceeding smoothly, and we hope that it would be finalised by 2013,” said Mr. Sharma. The sixth round of CEPA negotiations are going to be held in Ottawa from November 14-16, 2012. The fifth round of CEPA negotiations between India and Canada was held recently in New Delhi from 24th to 26th July, 2012.
