South Indians haven’t got a platform to voice their opinion in trade delegations set up by the Government of Canada.
Many business people want to know if there are any grants or funding available. There actually is, at the federal and provincial level but they don’t know how to get it.
Balan Manian, Vice Chairman South India Chamber of Commerce (SICCC), has been working as a realtor inTorontofor the last 12 years. He studied engineering fromIrelandand worked inEnglandfor nine years as a technical trainer. The young entrepreneur talked to Generation Next’s Asma Aamanat about SICCC’s long term goals and objectives.
What motivated you to join South India Chamber of Commerce?
About eight months back, I was talking to some members of the South India Chamber of Commerce. We realized that there was no representation of entrepreneurs from the South Indian community. The Indian Chamber of Commerce has more concentration of people fromNorth India. Tamil Chamber of Commerce is predominantly Sri Lankan. In all that people from Kerala and Karnataka tend to be bypassed, as people tend to focus on what they are already familiar with. South Indians haven’t got a platform to voice their opinion in trade delegations set up by the Government of Canada.
How many South Indian realtors are in GTA? What’s the volume of business like?
There are more than 100 real estate agents; conservatively we have about 2500 South Indian businesses here. In terms of volume of business, it’s in excess of a million dollars. An average business is doing a business of at least a quarter billion dollars.
Do you think the South Indian community gets left out because of language and culture barrier from the rest of the country?
I don’t think language is an issue; people tend to be more focused on what they know. We get a lot of help from the Indo Canada Chamber of Commerce (ICCC). They’re a big supporter of ours – they’ve been helping us on how to get things going, how to set up trade delegations. South Indian Chamber of Commerce is now trying to pull in the South Indian members to give them a voice.
Now that you’ve opened the South Indian Chamber of Commerce, do you think your members will be open to be members of ICCC any other chambers of commerce?
Absolutely, we want our members to become members of various chambers so that they can network with more members – to develop international relationships.
Looking at your flyer, the aims and objectives seem to be really vague?
Our chamber of commerce focuses on creating a network environment for business people from South Indian primarily; however, we won’t say no to others. We want to develop relationships at the international level. We now have a lot of interest inIndiafromCanada, and we want to build up on those ties.
Have there been any trade missions to South India from Canada?
There’s one that is being organized by the City ofMarkhamin Jan 2013 in association with the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICCC), that that’ll be the first one.
How about from the federal government and the provincial government?
At the provincial level, nothing has happened so far. At federal level, there’s going to be trade mission toIndiain December this year. They are going to the North, but they are taking part in Kerala.
How many members do you have?
Currently, we have an excess of 150 members. Our goal is to have a number of 1000 members by next year, and in about five years time the number should rise to 2000 members.
Is it being really ambitious? Indo Canada Chamber of Commerce is around for quite some time and they have around 1200 members.
There are lots of people here who are not members of any organization. That’s why we want to promote ourselves so that they see us active and how we can benefit them in trade delegations.
But there are lots of people who aren’t members of any organization, because they don’t see any advantage in doing so?
Right now we are about 8 people on the board and about 150 members. Through our members’ interaction we are showing them what can be done. We have a member of parliament Joe Daniel, a member of the Conservative Party who’s originally from Kerala. He’s helping us to get our connections back inIndiaso that our members get some practical help.
Are your members Conservative in their leanings?
I’m a Liberal. We want our organization to represent people – we all work with each other. So we are not really focused in that respect.
What kind of challenges do people face when it comes to setting up businesses?
Many business people want to know if there are any grants or funding available. There actually is, at the federal and provincial level but they don’t know how to get it.
Are they mostly immigrant businessmen or local?
They are mostly new – small ones like import, export, video, food et al. A lot of people come toCanadabut they can’t get work in their field. So they get into entrepreneurship and this is where we come in.
How many women do you think want to start up businesses, and what kind of representation do you have from women in your chamber?
We have about 9 ladies in our setup, who are entrepreneurs themselves. One of them is in publishing, the other in catering and so on. It’s a good mix.
Most South Asian organizations have the same president/board members for many years. How do you ensure that the president is changed every two years?
We want our organization to be robust and growing. Our initial board members are on a term of 4 years. Thereafter they have to change.
Are you more focused on areas like Markham and Scarborough only?
No, we are all over GTA.
As any organization, are you going to support any political party?
We are not going to support any political party, although we do have members from the Conservative party.
What’s your vision for the next 10 years?
Next year, we want to get the trade delegation set up betweenCanadaandIndia. We are part of the Ontario Association of Chambers, and we want them to give us more recognition.
What’s your opinion on the Canada India trade negotiations?
We are encouraged by the developments, it’s all looking positive.
