From: SiliconIndia News

New Delhi: Canada is keen to collaborate with India on cyber security by training its workforce so that both the countries utilize their strengths to tackle the issue, Canadian envoy said.

Canadian High Commissioner Stewart Beck, while speaking in a function here said, India would require 5,00,000 people in cyber security while Canada has ten educational institutions in the province of Ontario alone that provide programmes on cyber security.

“We believe both the countries have some strengths and we need to work together utilizing them…We have ten educational institutions in the province of Ontario alone that provide programmes on cyber security. This is how we can collaborate with India,” Beck said.

He said that Canada can be excellent partners with India in areas food security, energy security, education and infrastructure.

Talking about Canadian pension funds, Beck said his country believes that India provides the long term secure and stable capital investment and as Canada has the strongest pension funds in the world; it wants these funds to come to India.

He said that last week representatives of five largest Canadian pension funds were in India to talk about how to bring Canadian capital in this market. Those five funds alone represent around 700 billion dollars of investable capital. The Canadian financial system survived the 2008 financial crisis.

“One of the concerns that the Canadian pension funds have is the taxation system in India. India has layers of tax. Canadians do not have any problems in paying tax. Already some Canadian pension funds have invested in India and although not large investments, but by normal standards its pretty large and we want to bring in more because we see the opportunities,” said Beck.

Beck said pension funds do not need to have a 70 per cent return on a long term basis but a 8-10 per cent. “As long as one can have that in a relatively risk free environment, I see a good future in India,” he said.