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21| W aterloo C hronicle | T hursday,June 14,2018 w aterloochronicle.ca From the latest information on local politics, to minor sports scores and what's going on down the street, get it all online. CURRENT. COMMUNITY. CONNECTED www.waterloochronicle.ca BUSINESS Visit waterloochronicle.ca for more coverage "When you think of in- novation, when you think of entrepreneurship, you obviously think of Water- loo." Nadira Hamid, presi- dent and CEO of the Indo- Canadian Business Cham- ber (ICBC), was pleased with what she saw as she and her delegates visited Communitech in Kitche- ner part of their cross- country tour on Thursday, June 7. The ICBC aims to con- nect entrepreneurs and small businesses with the opportunity not only for advancement, but net- working and knowledge gain as well, said Hamid. "We feel that the big guys (companies) have enough happening for them and enough support, we as a chamber for us, our agenda is to promote the entrepreneurs. Innovation is one of our focus sectors that we're going to be high- lighting this year, the year to come," said Hamid. The delegation, which runs out of Delhi, has been to Canada in the past, in- cluding a trip to Prince Ed- ward Island in 2017. This is, however, its first trip to Waterloo. Hamid was also particularly impressed with the atmosphere and networking opportunities provided at an open con- cept type layout at Commu- nitech, which has been the home for rising startups in the region since 2010. "(it's a) great way to have interaction with all kinds of people; I love it, it's in- spiring," said Hamid, who lauded the uniqueness of Communitech, which was described as a "tech ecosys- tem" by its director of inter- national strategy, Lisa Cashmore, and its ability to help companies to start from scratch with just an idea. After their tour at Com- munitech, the delegates travelled to Ontario Gear & Drive in New Hamburg to see its manufacturing plant. They also travelled to Ottawa and Toronto as a part of their two-week trip and will also visit Calgary and Vancouver before heading back. Tony LaMantia, presi- dent and CEO of the Water- loo Region Economic De- velopment Corporation, al- so spoke to the delegate de- scribing the region's rapid growth. "We want to be recog- nized as a leader for tech around the world, if groups like this, organizations like this want to come and visit Communitech, we're hap- py to showcase what it is we're working on," said Cashmore, who spoke pri- or to the delegation's tour of the building. "It's quite unique, there really isn't any others doing things ex- actly the way we are. If peo- ple can learn from us, we can learn from them, it's a win- win. Particularly with a group from India, it's of interest to me, because of the projects that I work with like T-Hub in Hyder- abad, the more connec- tions that we can have to help each other's compa- nies, the better." Communitech and In- dia's largest incubator, T- Hub, announced their partnership in February. "Our thinking is that al- though we're different countries, we're very simi- lar in many ways also. We're the largest as far as geography goes, India's the largest as far as population goes. There are many ways in which we can help one another, " Cashmore said. "Many of the problems that India is dealing with as they become more of a pow- erhouse country, more of a developed country, are things that our tech com- panies are working on, so- lutions that they're looking to help with anyway. Sus- tainable cities, tech that's helping with water and en- vironmental issues, there's a lot of alignment as far as the kinds of issues that our company's tackling and the kinds of issues India's fac- ing we just have a lot of similarities as far as val- ues." Raman Tanga, director of S.S. Engineering Indus- tries, who has travelled to Canada many times, is par- ticularly interested in blockchain and artificial intelligence technologies. He too thinks that the rela- tionship between Canada and India has a lot of pros- pects for growth. "It has a lot of potential, it's growing, but it still has a lot of potential," said Tan- ga, who completed his mas- ters in business adminis- tration in Virginia. "You es- sentially can't compare In- dia with other developed countries or G7 countries, but India is the market for every company who wants to do business," The ICBC was a part of running business events during Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Visit to India in February, as well. "Nowadays, there's a lot of disenchantment with other countries at the mo- ment because of their pol- icies, or whatever's hap- pening over there," said Hamid. "As a result, there's more and more interest in Canada. Canada and India share so many values and so many traditions. "Also with the recent visit of the prime minister, and our prime minister visited a year or two back - all that exchange of people, exchange of ideas, has built a kind of excitement. We feel this is the right time where people from both countries are interested in meeting each other." Indian business delegates visit Communitech part of cross-country tour Delegates from India travelled to Canada multiple stops as part of a trip planned by the Indo-Canadian Business Chamber. Namish Modi/Metroland 'When you think of entrepreneurship, you obviously think of Waterloo.' NAMISH MODI nmodi@waterloochronicle.ca