Improving international market access and providing information on how the Government of Alberta can help businesses access those markets was the focus of a presentation by Cal Dallas, minister of international and intergovernmental relations, on Sept. 17 at the Olds Ramada hotel.
The visit was the continuation of a tour of 15 communities throughout the province that began in April. As a result of those visits, eight more communities, including Olds, were added to the tour last week.
The local event was organized by the Olds Chamber of Commerce.
Part of the reason for the tour is to allow innovative entrepreneurs in Alberta to realize they can have a broader reach for their products and help them reach those markets, Dallas said. According to statistics provided by Dallas, in 2012, $95 billion was exported from Alberta to various markets around the world, one-third of the entire gross domestic product of the province last year. And Alberta ranked second only to Saskatchewan among Canadian provinces with $24,421 worth of exports per capita last year.
Government officials are working on building industrial and agricultural markets internationally, Dallas said.
“We're doing some amazing things in Alberta,” he told the audience. “The reality is we've identified some opportunities in emerging markets. We have to compete in every manner.”
Dallas also said the government wants to leverage investments it is making in education and other areas so that business owners can take advantage of opportunities when they arise. Working with chambers of commerce, municipalities and business owners at identifying markets and specific opportunities is a major focus of the government, he added.
To that end, the provincial government has established 10 stand-alone international offices around the world to work with Albertans and local business people in those areas. It plans on adding six more offices in the near future, including one in Chicago. In 2012, Alberta businesses exported $20-billion worth of goods and services to Illinois.
“We really need to take a Team Alberta approach,” Dallas said.
Following the presentation, he said in an interview that the province's office in Washington, D.C., focuses on policy advocacy in addition to trade development and investment attraction, while other offices around the world focus solely on trade and investment attraction.
“Over a long period of Alberta's history we've required an inflow of capital into Alberta to help us develop our businesses and our infrastructure, and that continues today, particularly with emphasis on the oilsands area. We require investment capital to flow in from around the world, and to do that we've obviously got to create a sense of confidence that that capital is landing in a stable democracy,” he said.
The government is also coordinating various ministries to better help business owners, with the department of international and intergovernmental affairs linking business owners with other ministries such as agriculture and rural development.
Mitch Thompson, interim executive director of the Olds Institute For Community and Regional Development, asked Dallas how the community could benefit internationally from the local fibre-to-the-premise project. Dallas said the fibre project is an excellent example of community branding.
He said that business owners who want to expand internationally must do their research and understand the business climate they are going into before they make any proposals. Often, developing relationships are key before any sales can be made.
“We've had a tremendous amount of success over the last number of years attracting investment into the province and we've got to continue that going forward.”
Once capital starts flowing in both directions, Dallas said that's when the best opportunities arise.
“Once that capital starts flowing back and forth between these jurisdictions, that's when the real trade opportunities start to percolate and Alberta businesses can take advantage of those opportunities,” he said.
Doug Rieberger, president of the Olds and District Chamber of Commerce, said following the presentation that it was important to hear how various government departments can help business people looking to expand into international markets.
“(Dallas) was very forthcoming with the stuff that had to be done by the businesses themselves ahead of time before they can start getting into even approaching the idea of starting to export,” he said. “But the one thing he did bring out was the fact that the government had agencies available to businesses to start working towards that goal if that's what they wanted to do.”
