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The Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade led by Minister Ed Fast recently concluded a successful trade mission to Russia that included several companies and organizations from Canada’s space systems sector. Along for the trip from the space systems sector where ABB, the Canadian Commercial Corporation, MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates (MDA), Neptec Design Group, the Canadian Space Agency and the Aerospace Industries Association of Canada.
“On this trade mission, I’ve seen first-hand the growth in demand for Canadian goods, services and technologies and how Russia can benefit from Canadian expertise in key sectors,” said Minister Fast. “Seeing how Canadian businesses are prospering and growing in Russia showed me how world-class Canadian companies can compete and succeed in dynamic and fast-growing markets around the world.”
Several Canadian companies contacted by SpaceRef, who wished to remain anonymous at this time, indicated that while they had not closed any deals, that negotiations were underway and they expected to close deals in the future.
One company that did comment for the record was the Neptec Design Group.
“Thanks to officials from the Canadian Space Agency for their support during critical meetings with high level Russian executives and Russian Space Agency and the planning of the Embassy, the Canadian Trade Commissioner Service and of course the support of Minister Fast himself, we were able to make significant progress in our efforts to partner with Russia on projects of mutual interest,” said Neptec’s VP of International Business Development Larisa Beach. “This is a major step forward in our negotiations and although we did not close the deal we are quite confident in the successful completion of our negotiations.”
For its part the Canadian Space Agency who have been in negotiations with Russia on a comprehensive deal for some time now, and for which a deal was expected to conclude by the end of last year, no deal was signed.
