India and Canada today formally launched negotiations for a Comprehensive Economic and Cooperation Agreement, CECA, to boost bilateral trade. In a joint press conference in New Delhi, the Commerce and Industry Minister, Mr Anand Sharma said that as per a joint study group report, both countries will benefit from the CECA and the gains for Indian and Canada will be of the order of 39 to 62 per cent. He said that India's GDP is likely to benefit by around 10 billion US dollar from the proposed free trade pact. He said that the gains which are projected in the report were between 6 billion to 12 billion US dollar for the Indian GDP. Mr Sharma said that there are huge opportunities for Indian businesses in Canada in sectors like energy, IT, education and mining. Canada's International Trade Minister, Mr Peter Van Laon, said bilateral trade between both the countries will increase to 15 billion US dollar in the next five years.