Winnipeg set to get its own World Trade Centre?

The chatter has already begun from various sectors about how tough it's going to be get provincial funding for industry initiatives.

But both the federal and provincial governments came forward fairly quickly to provide a total of $1.2 million of financial support to backstop Centrallia 2012, the international business match-making event to be held again this year in Winnipeg in October.

If we can assume there is community-wide support to grow the economic base of the city and province, then the public sector can't not support something like Centrallia.

It sounds like the same can be said about an initiative to establish a World Trade Centre in Winnipeg.

It is a refreshing new trend for Broadway.

As it stands, resources made available for the promotion of trade and economic development (including tourism) are notoriously low in Manitoba.

But Dave Angus, president of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce, says Manitoba companies doing business internationally carry the Manitoba brand. "If you come from Timbuktu, you are at a disadvantage," he said, suggesting people really don't know much about Timbuktu (or Winnipeg?) and hence not much about what the business offering could possibly be from that locale.

A UPS survey this week showed that more than 20 per cent of Canadian small and medium-sized enterprises are now considering doing business in emerging markets.

"What we currently invest in trade is not robust," Angus said. "So to cut even more in an era where we need to light the fire under business" is not in anyone's best interests.

Peter Bjornson, Manitoba's minister of entrepreneurship, training and trade, seems to be of the same mind.

"The (idea of a ) WTC is a recognition that we need to continue to grow our exports and continue to look to other markets," Bjornson said.

There are more than 300 WTC locations in 90 countries. There are four in Canada, but none between Toronto and Edmonton.

Through the efforts of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce, the $200,000 World Trade Centres Association licence fee has already been raised.

The next opportunity to apply for a licence from the New York organization is in April.

Premier Greg Selinger has publicly endorsed the initiative.

At his state of the province address last month, Selinger said, "The groundwork is already being worked on very diligently for Manitoba to have the first bilingual World Trade Council. It is a realizable objective that we can accomplish."

A Winnipeg WTC (where every member of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce would automatically be a member) would link this city with the global WTC network.

It also becomes the de facto international trade services clearinghouse with access to the WTC's global databank and a host of training products to make trade-happy small- and medium-sized enterprises trade-ready.

But there's lots to do between now and the April application deadline.

WTC sites around the world typically are part of a trade and commerce real estate development that includes meeting and hospitality facilities.

Originally, when the wheels were set in motion to apply for a Winnipeg WTC licence, the thinking was that the Paris Building location would be the site because Manitoba Trade, Economic Development Winnipeg and the chamber are all co-located in the Portage Avenue building.

But Angus has indicated the possibility of a new real estate development for the WTC has come into play.

No details are available, but clearly the project has taken on greater scope and scale.

In the context of the efforts to bring the WTC to Winnipeg, public sector financial endorsement of Centrallia is a good sign that trade development is important.

There will be a request for provincial support for WTC operating expenses. Bjornson said it's too early to talk about how much the province is prepared to make available.

When it comes to the operation of such a facility, an interesting scenario is shaping up.

Centrallia is the brainchild of Mariette Mulaire, CEO of ANIM, the province's bilingual trade agency. Its federal funding has run out and provincial funding is set to end this spring.

But who better than Mulaire and ANIM to run a bilingual Winnipeg WTC?

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition January 12, 2012 B3