Vancouver's Globe Forum 2018 conference was as popular a place for foreign enterprises to do business with one another as it was to connect with companies from Canada.
Delegates from several foreign market governments are using this year’s Globe exhibit as a jumping board into the Canadian and North American markets, but many are reporting they are networking with one another just as much as they are with Canadian counterparts, given the conference’s increasing stature as an international platform.
“We’ve already had two meetings this morning, one from an Indian agency, another from a Chinese one,” said Gustavo Dichiara, trade analyst for the Italian Trade Commission on Globe’s Day 1 last Wednesday. “This year, the Globe is much more international. It’s not just the local business community … and they are all looking for businesses here. So without doing anything differently here, we can talk business with anyone in the world.”
Among the foreign markets with dedicated pavilions at Globe are Italy – where Dichiara is hoping to entice Canadian and international government agencies on recycling technology to deal with excess garbage – as well as China, Great Britain and the Netherlands.
Thailand and the European Union held off-site networking events in the periphery of Globe, both emphasizing clean-technology opportunities.
In Thailand’s case, it targeted its presentation on its efforts to launch “Thailand 4.0” – a plan to transform the Thai economy from export-oriented manufacturing to value-added innovation-driven models. Officials, noting Vancouver’s diverse audience, especially during Globe, cast a wide net in the country’s message to potential investors from Canada and elsewhere.
In order to do so, Thailand needs to brand itself as more than “just food and travel,” said acting Thai Consul General in Vancouver Narat Vidyananda.
“People should think of us not as Thailand, but as the gateway to Southeast Asia – a market of 600 million people.”
Vidyananda also pointed to the country’s aggressive tax incentives and cheap labour costs, as well as its connections to China and India as part of the Eastern Economic Corridor.
The prize for the largest – and arguably the most organized – effort, however, goes to Taiwan. The semiconductor-production giant and its delegation of six businesses and three non-governmental organizations broke recent trends of highlighting futuristic technology at Globe, instead focusing on easily accessible lifestyle products from companies that – for the most part – have yet to find distributors in North America and beyond.
Chen Chang-ren, secretary general of the Taiwan Green Technology Industry Alliance, said the majority of the companies brought over to Vancouver are from the city of Tainan, where the Taiwanese government launched its green-technology park project in 2016. Chen said bringing delegates from Tainan to Vancouver is especially important, because most have not had any international business experience.
“The majority of these companies are SMEs [small and medium-sized enterprises], and what they need more than anything is an introduction to the overseas market,” Chen said, noting products like a clear film – created this year by Taiwan Energy Saving Film Co. – that blocks out infrared rays (heat) without sacrificing a window’s transparency. Company representatives say the material can be applied without glue and has applications in homes, offices and automobiles, and the firm is now seeking its first Canadian distributor.
“Many of these technologies are developed by researchers in Taiwan, but they don’t know how to commercialize the product beyond our domestic market,” Chen added. “That’s why I believe we need to be here, to tell their stories … and western markets like Canada are an especially good fit, because people are willing to pay more for sustainable products, even if it is a little more expensive.”
Taiwan Trade Center Vancouver director Ruth Chang noted that, because organizers were well aware of Globe’s increasing role as a global platform, the decision to focus on lifestyle technology was crucial because it can make a quick and easy impression on passersby – whether they are Canadian show visitors or foreign delegates wandering the exhibition space.
“This morning, when there were fewer people at the exhibition, there were quite a few other delegations who came by to take a look,” Chang said. “And most of these companies we have here, they don’t have a distributor here in North America or elsewhere in the West, so we view this as a big opportunity.… These technologies are all around you in your daily lives. That way, it’s more easily digestible by the Canadian audience, as well as any visitor.”
That does not mean foreign Globe delegations are ignoring the Canadian market, officials said; rather, the main draw for most of these companies remain Canada and B.C., both with a sizable reputation in the global space in terms of sustainable technology. The increased foreign delegation-to-delegation business is just a byproduct of the increasing number of clean-tech players wanting to participate in the Canadian space.
That is the view of Amit Roy, CEO of Engas UK Ltd. and part of the British delegation at Globe. Engas, which already has some foreign-market experience in Europe and India, will not be diluting its efforts elsewhere to sell its Bio-CNG (purified biogas treated to produce pure methane) technology, which can convert bio-waste to electricity that can be used to power applications like electric vehicles.
That’s why, Roy said, Engas is seeking a Canadian joint venture partner to help it navigate Canada’s market space – because it would like to give the market the dedication it deserves.
“I think we have relevant technologies for Canadian needs, and I think if we already see the recognition of our technology in places like Europe and India, why not Canada?” Roy said. “Because the meetings here have two structures: one is structured, and you already know who you are meeting, while there are some meetings that just happen – there are international visitors who want to meet us, and that’s usually unplanned.
“But we are still very much focused on Canadian opportunities – such as the rural communities here, which may be in need of a solution like ours.”
