Trade and the Canadian Economy
Services and the Canadian Economy
Stories of the Week - July 8, 2002:
The services sector - particularly knowledge-based industries related to information technology and telecommunications - is the fastest-growing segment of Canada's economy. It employs about three Canadians in four and creates about 80 percent of new jobs.
Canada and its WTO partners are negotiating the further liberalization of trade in services. The Government of Canada is continuing its efforts to ensure that its citizens are the world's most informed on trade negotiations by announcing the market openings that it is asking selected WTO members to make in ongoing services negotiations.
To demonstrate the importance of these negotiations and the role of services in the Canadian economy, success stories involving the services sector are being showcased this week.
EVS Environment Consultants, North Vancouver, British Columbia
EVS Environment Consultants has been involved in more than 2,500 projects throughout North America, Australia, South America and Asia, addressing a wide range of environmental issues. For example, EVS staff have developed gender equity strategies for women scientists and managers in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations countries, and have prepared gender analyses identifying the barriers facing women at the community level in the People's Republic of China, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines. Through training and capacity building, EVS is assisting developing countries in Asia in formulating and reviewing regulations for pollution control, emergency response planning, and risk and hazard assessment, as well as urban environmental, integrated coastal zone and water quality management.
Winner of a 1999 B.C. Export Excellence Award, EVS has corporate offices in North Vancouver and Seattle, with project offices in Bangkok and Jakarta (Canora Asia Inc.). It has the largest privately owned biological and toxicity testing facility in the Pacific Northwest, and one of the largest in North America. EVS also maintains a benthic laboratory for processing freshwater and marine benthic samples; this provides a wide range of field sampling and data collection support activities.
Matrikon Inc., Edmonton, Alberta
When major industrial companies around the world look to streamline their operations or rapidly adjust to changing markets, they are increasingly turning to Edmonton-based Matrikon Inc. for help.
Canada Export Award 2001 finalist Matrikon Inc., an engineering and consulting firm, has developed a wide range of Web-based products and services that help clients turn massive volumes of data into knowledge. Matrikon's clients can be found around the world in a variety of industries, including oil and gas, petrochemicals, cement, pulp and paper, pharmaceuticals, food and beverage processing, and various utilities. About 65 percent of its business is with U.S. clients and its solutions are also being used in Australia, Japan, the U.K., the Middle East, Costa Rica and Venezuela. The company has offices across North America and in Saudi Arabia.
"There are two key factors to our success in the global marketplace," says Matrikon CEO Nizar J. Somji. "First, our internal cultural diversity allows us to understand cultural differences and also enables us to communicate with clients around the world." In fact, Matrikon's employees speak more than 40 different languages. "The second factor applies equally in our own backyard: it is our philosophy to build business through strong, sustained relationships with our clients."
Amana Tech Inc., Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
Why wouldn't a small Web-based IT solutions company from Saskatchewan export its services to the largest IT hub in the Middle East - Dubai - a city with no personal income tax, no corporate tax and three free trade zones?
Amana Tech Inc.
recently finalized a major deal in the United Arab Emirates to provide Web hosting services to more than 40 companies within the Al Ghurair Group, a multi-billion-dollar group of companies. The contract was signed in May by Marketing Director Janea Bellay at the Canadian Consulate in Dubai, during a ceremony attended by a host of dignitaries and diplomats.
"Most companies in the Arabian Gulf region previously used U.S. companies for their Web hosting," says Nezar Freeny, President of Amana Tech Inc. "Our competitive advantage is our multilingual and multicultural abilities. In a market where more companies are going global, our clients are looking for services in multiple languages, and we offer that niche service."
The agreement with the Al Ghurair Group also identifies the future use of Amana Tech's other Web-based services, such as live satellite broadcasting, real-time streaming, Web design and database development.
The company's exporting activities have received a big boost from Saskatchewan Trade and Export Partnership (STEP). "STEP has helped us expand globally by providing market intelligence reports, trade assistance, local representation in our international markets and prospective leads, which have led to building new business relationships," adds Freeny.
RSW International Consultants, Montreal, Quebec
Over the past 30 years, RSW International - the international arm of Groupe RSW, a Montreal-based consulting engineering firm - has completed assignments in more than 40 countries worldwide.
"Our international activities are of paramount importance," says Claudio Vissa, Vice-President International. "About one third of RSW's revenue and staff are generated by exports."
Among RSW's current projects are the Esen II hydroelectric plant in southwest Turkey, and two hydro power plants in India. The firm is also providing technical assistance for the construction of major hydro power plants in Iran, and was retained for a CIDA-assisted feasibility study of a wind energy farm in Jordan.
Groupe RSW specializes in engineering and project management in the energy, industrial, urban infrastructure, building, environment, transportation and mining sectors. It has offices in Quebec City and other cities in Quebec through its subsidiary Groupe LMB Experts-Conseils Inc., as well as operating centres in India, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Costa Rica and France.
Coles Associates Ltd., Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island
The Team Canada Trade Mission to Latin America helped Coles Associates Ltd. land an agreement in Argentina to provide consulting services for a food science/technology centre. That deal led to the commission of other projects in Argentina, which in turn led to Coles' securing work in the U.S. market.
"It was first-class," company President Richard Coles says of the 1998 trip. "The impact of Team Canada and our government's support are tremendous assets in dealing with firms in other parts of the world."
Coles Associates currently provides architecture and engineering services to a diverse clientele throughout Canada and the United States. Some of the firm's current projects include a feasibility study for an absorption chiller and cooling tower at Boston's New England Aquarium; construction administration assistance with the reconfiguration and upgrade of a food-processing facility in Idaho; an extension to a utility tunnel underneath Avery Street in Boston. Last year, Coles delivered mechanical design services and on-site assistance during the construction of a refrigerated storage plant in Maine as part of the expansion of a food-processing facility. This project was a direct result of services previously provided to the same client in Argentina.
"Trade commissioners at the Canadian consulate in Boston have assisted Coles Associates in the analysis of prospective markets, as well as providing contact names for potential clients," says Douglas Coles, Vice-President of the firm. "They have always been willing to assist and have provided very quick responses to our inquiries." In 2001, Mr. Coles collaborated with Martin Robichaud of the Canadian Consulate in Boston to deliver a presentation to the Ontario Association of Professional Engineers about tips on successfully marketing engineering services in the U.S. marketplace.
Dessaport International, Halifax, Nova Scotia
Dessaport International, a participant in the Team Canada 2002 Trade Mission to Europe, is a consortium of Canadian companies specializing in project development and engineering, freight forwarding, and commodity trading. Dessaport is the originating Canadian partner of the $119 million deepwater grain terminal in Gdansk, Poland. In Odessa, Ukraine, the company expects to start construction of the new $83 million Dessaport Terminals port in September 2002, in conjunction with another Canadian partner and a French operator.
Donald LeBlanc, CEO of Dessaport, joined the Team Canada Trade Mission to Moscow in order to meet with government officials and business people in the agricultural sector.
The challenges of working in Russia are similar to those in Ukraine, says LeBlanc. "For example, securing financing for local projects is often difficult, and incomplete legislation sometimes makes it impossible to obtain a clear property deed." But these markets also present definite advantages for Canadian exporters, adds LeBlanc. "The transition to a free-market economy is creating numerous opportunities to identify and undertake a variety of major projects of a type very familiar to Canadian companies, provided that the proper local support team is in place."
Ferguson Simek Clark, Yellowknife, Northwest Territories
The engineering and architectural talents of Ferguson Simek Clark (FSC) are a hot ticket in parts of Russia where cold weather and harsh conditions have forced many to give up.
FSC is the Northwest Territories' largest full-service architecture and engineering firm specializing in remote cold regions technology. In 2000, the company signed 12 contracts worth over $30.5 million to design, engineer and build houses, schools, a hotel, a hockey arena and a fish plant in the Siberian region of Chukotka - a peninsula across the Bering Sea from Alaska. The 12 deals, which have created 35 jobs in Canada and 150 jobs in Russia, were signed less than six months after a Canada Trade Mission to Moscow in June 2000.
"We sent $12 million of 100 percent Canadian building materials from Canada to Chukotka," says Stefan Simek, a partner in the firm. "Transportation logistics are much easier there. Chukotka is closer to Inuvik or Edmonton than it is to Moscow." Last year, FSC signed about eight similar contracts in the same region. Most recently, in June 2002 FSC concluded a number of deals with major oil companies on Sakhalin Island, including a joint venture with Exxon to provide consulting services for road construction.
With offices in Yellowknife, Iqaluit, Edmonton and Whitehorse, FSC's success in Russia is based on knowing the language as well as having building expertise above the 60th parallel.
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Updated on July 8, 2002
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