Events

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March 25th, 2013

Turkey reclaims its place as a hub of international trade

Last week, in preparation for the trade mission at Futurallia 2013, to be held this year in Istanbul, I took part in a conference on business opportunities in Turkey for Québec firms organized by Québec International in cooperation with EDC. Guest speakers included Mike Ward, former senior trade commissioner at the Canadian Embassy in Turkey, who has observed the rapid development of Turkey’s economy over the past 10 years firsthand, Anis Ouanès, from Export Québec’s Central and Eastern Europe Desk, and Québec entrepreneur Charles Mordret, who has been doing business in and with Turkey for some 15 years. (more…)

February 25th, 2013

Are you ready to step onto the world stage?

On January 29, the LTIBC, in collaboration with the ministère des Finances et de l’Économie, held a seminar on best practices in determining export readiness. More specifically, it introduced the export readiness assessment (ERA), a simple concrete management tool that addresses all the elements required to take your company global. The exercise involves asking yourself a comprehensives set of questions about your readiness to embark on a specific project involving a new market and is equally useful for those entering their first or tenth foreign market. The goal is not to discourage business owners from venturing into new territory but to help them accurately assess their strengths, weakness and risks so they can develop an action plan that will make them more confident when exporting. (more…)

January 25th, 2013

Presenting an internationalization project to potential investors: An educational exercise

On November 14, 2012, the International Business Centre organized a special event, mimicking the concept of the popular television program “Dragon’s Den”, adapted to the quest for financing within the context of carrying out an internationalization plan. Three of the companies that took part in the training-coaching program entitled “Internationalisez votre PME, une approche terre à terre” [Internationalizing your SME: A down-to-earth approach], which was launched in February 2012, were given the opportunity to present their projects to a panel of representatives from various public and quasi-public agencies that provide financing or financial assistance for development projects. (more…)

October 9th, 2012

How to Present an Internationalization Project to Potential Investors

On September 11, during a workshop attended by the representatives of eight companies involved in the “Internationalizing your SMB” program, we talked about the most effective way to present an internationalization project to investors or financial partners. To this end, we used the World Café formulaand broke the discussion down into two topics: the content and form the presentation should take. (more…)

June 14th, 2012

Anchors Aweigh?

On May 30, the LAVAL TECHNOPOLE International Business Centre hosted Peter Hall, Vice-President and Chief Economist at Export Development Canada, who was on his annual cross-Canada tour, dubbed “Let’s talk exports.”

Called “Anchors Aweigh?,”  Mr. Hall’s  presentation sought to lift some of the current global economic gloom by pointing out a number of positive signs that indicate a certain recovery, particularly in the U.S., and continued growth in Canadian exports. Mr. Hall compared the global economy to a hot air balloon ready to take flight, citing the financial health of companies and the U.S. recovery as drivers that he believes will offset the economic woes in Europe. That said, although fired up and ready to take off, the hot air balloon is still tethered to the ground by ropes, which symbolize the key risks and issues such as the European crisis, government spending cuts, and the economic slowdown in the principal emerging countries.  According to the EDC, when these problems abate, the world economy will take off and the challenge for Canadian SMEs will no longer be to try and find customers for their products but to find and hold on to people to make them. Mr. Hall said that during his cross-Canada tour this spring, he kept coming across business leaders who told him, almost embarrassed, that their order books are overflowing despite all the negative economic news.

EDC therefore predicts that Canadian and Quebec exports will grow roughly 7% this year and next, which is not as much as the 12% recorded in 2011 but still strong. The pickup in residential construction south of the border, the clear debt-cutting trend among U.S. households and the improvement in the labour market are three factors that should fuel the U.S. recovery and boost exports in Canada’s main industries.

As for the Canadian dollar, EDC expects it to remain almost on par with the greenback (US$1.01) in 2012 and then slip to about US$0.97 in 2013.

To learn more and for complete details about the export forecasts, read the report, available at no charge on the EDC site.

In closing, I’d like to thank all the business owners and people who attended the presentation. The turnout for these two editions was excellent, which could spell the beginning of a new tradition in Laval.

Bruno Séguin

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