TORONTO: The Toronto Region Board of Trade is launching an export program designed to help small and medium-sized businesses tap into new international markets.
A low Canadian dollar, limited domestic growth, and a strong U.S. economy are creating the right conditions for more companies to explore exporting, the business group said in a report released.
Businesses in Toronto have a range of export services, information, and financing available to them, but still face a variety of hurdles, the board said.
Companies say they don’t have a suitable product or service to export, don’t have the resources, or believe they would have trouble finding overseas customers, agents or distributors, the report said.
“The issue for many of them is they feel they are too small, they don’t really have the time to look into things,” Jan De Silva, president and chief executive of the Toronto Region Board of Trade said in an interview. “It’s complicated to try to find the right partners in other markets so they simply don’t.”
Only about 41,000 out of the 1 million small and medium-sized businesses in Canada are exporting to other countries, the Toronto Region Board of Trade said in its Export Strategy Report.
The board’s Trade Accelerator Program, dubbed TAP GTA, is meant to be a one-stop shop for businesses looking to export.
It will be offered in three stages over 90 days, starting with an intensive orientation on the trade resources available and the lessons learned by other companies already active in exports.
The second stage will help companies identify potential markets and develop an export strategy.
In the final part, private and public sector firms will work with companies to activate their export plans.
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Toronto is uniquely positioned to tap into export markets, with nearly half, or 47 per cent, of its residents foreign-born. Nearly three quarters of the newcomers who have settled in the region recently have some form of post-secondary education, the board said in its report.
Export sales, and the lack of them, have a profound effect on the health of the economy in the Toronto region, and Canada as a whole, the report said.
Every $100 million increase in exports creates approximately 1,000 new jobs at home, according to figures from the Conference Board of Canada.
Productivity across the Toronto region declined by 6 per cent from 2000 to 2010, in part because of falling exports.
Export is a huge opportunity for growth for businesses in Canada, which has a small domestic market, De Silva said.
“We have to start creating some of that mindset and opportunity and willingness in our business community,” De Silva said. “Our consumer markets in Canada are aging. As your consumer markets age, there is less consumption, which will have a ripple effect for businesses across Canada.”
TAP GTA will be officially unveiled at a conference being hosted by the Toronto Region Board of Trade on May 12.
Conference guests will include Michael Chan, Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and International Trade, David Rawlings, chief executive officer of JPMorgan Chase Canada, Dianne Craig, president and chief executive officer of Ford Canada, and Sam Sebastian, managing director, Google Canada.
