NRI property tycoon brings India, Canada closer
Bob Dhillon is developing a 300,000-acre island in Belize, and owns a 1,500-acre rainforest in the island nation.
He is North America’s biggest South Asian property landlord and the number one NRI to own apartment buildings worldwide. Bob Dhillon, a Canadian Sikh also heads the Mainstreet Equity Corporation, which is rated as the best performing company in the Toronto Stock Exchange. He is currently developing a 300,000-acre island in Belize and owns a 1,500-acre rainforest in the island nation. He is also the consul general of Belize to Canada.
Dhillon is in India as a part of a high powered delegation led by Canadian Governor General David Johnston. The Governor General and his entourage were in New Delhi earlier this week before leaving for Bangalore and Mumbai. They will be returning on 2 March.
Dhillon hails from Tallewal village near Barnala and was born in Japan where his father was engaged in business. He has done his schooling from the Bishop Cotton School in Simla and subsequently did his MBA programme from Richard Ivey School of Business in Toronto. He told The Sunday Guardian that he keeps coming to India every year and has accompanied every official Canadian delegation since 2009. Speaking in fluent Punjabi, Dhillon recalled that his grandfather left Punjab a long time ago to do business in Hong Kong. However, the family continued its links with their native state and his
PTI father had part of his education from Mahindra College in Patiala. The family moved to Liberia where they incurred heavy losses before migrating first to Vancouver and then to Calgary in Western Canada.
At a very young age he decided to do his own business and bought two old houses before renovating and selling them. He made a good profit and that was his incentive into getting into the property business. He has more than 5000 apartments in North America alone. He said that he wanted to bring new practices and innovations to India but the governments at the Centre and the states have to be receptive to ideas.
Talking of the present visit, he said that Canada has to offer to India its resources and how to build infrastructure. The Canadian investment in India totals 644 million dol- lars. Indian investment in Canada is 3.7 billion dollars. Though the figures are probably understated, there is certainly room to improve. Canadian universities also offer great opportunity to Indian students whose number has gone up manifold during the past five years.
He said that India must realise that there were more than a million Canadians who can trace their roots to including 500,000 from Punjab and 300,000 from Gujarat. The Indian diaspora therefore can greatly help in the relationship of the two countries. Indo-Canadians make important contributions to Canada’s multicultural society and its economic, academic and political life.
Dhillon said that the importance of the current visit of the Governor General is that it was also among other things going to promote tourism. India, he said, had made great strides but it has to do a lot more for creating the right kind of infrastructure. This is where the Canadians can come in.