Jupally discusses economic ties between TG and Ontario

Hyderabad, June 17 (INN): Telangana Industries Minister Jupally Krishna Rao, who is on a five-day visit to the United States of America, had a meeting with the delegation from Ontario province of Canada in Philadelphia, USA.

Ontario delegation consisted of Minister Moridi, Minister for Research, Commercialization and Entrepreneurship, Ontario; Bill Mantel, Assistant Deputy Minister for Research, Commercialization and Entrepreneurship, Roshan Mohan, Consul (Economic Affairs ' Ontario), Ontario International Marketing Centre and Christine Poopalapillai, Senior policy adviser.

During the meeting, Jupally briefed the Ontario delegation about the State of Telangana, newly launched industrial policy of Telangana - TS iPASS and its salient features, life sciences policy of the state, etc. Highly impressed with the new industrial policy, which emphasizes on fast track clearances, penalties for delays, online applications, self-certification, etc., Minister Moridi was very appreciative and expressed that the policy promises great potential for global investors.

The delegation from Telangana consisted of Jupally, Special Chief Secretary Pradeep Chandra, Shakthi Nagappan of ICRISAT and Bio Asia Chief Executive Officer Paridhi Gupta, The delegation is in the US to participate in the annual international convention BIO and will also be visiting Washington DC for meeting with various stakeholder groups.

While briefing the Ontario delegation about the Genome Valley, proposed pharma city, medical devices park, BioAsia, etc. Shri. Pradeep Chandra briefed them about efforts of the State Government to make Telangana an innovation destination.

In turn, Minister Moridi briefed the Telangana delegation about Ontario province. 'Ontario ranks 6th in the world for research and innovation and 50% of the research capacity of Canada is in Ontario. With about 1900 companies, the life sciences sector contributes about USD 40 Bn to the Ontario's economy and has over 60000 skilled workforce' he said. 'Out of all the 60 North American States and provinces (America and Canada) put together, Ontario ranks number one in FDIs, number three in financial institutions, number three in ICT, etc.," he added.

Minister Moridi expressed his strong desire to build a strong partnership with Telangana focused on economic cooperation, research / technology collaboration, student & faculty exchange, etc. The delegation also agreed to put together a framework for bilateral research funding of translational research in the area of life sciences, information technology, medical devices, bio-agriculture, etc.

Jupally extended invitation to the Ontario delegation to visit Hyderabad for BioAsia 2016 and Minister Moridi expressed keen interest to visit personally. A delegation from Ontario is expected to visit Hyderabad in February 2016 wherein the partnership MoU is likely to be formalized with specific areas of cooperation.