IPG to Host “Doing Business With India” Workshop
Prince George, B.C. – Initiatives Prince George will focus its attention on India tomorrow.
They will do so by hosting the third in a series of workshops on emerging markets (they previously held workshops on China & Korea) at the Prince George Civic Centre starting at 8:30 am.
CEO Heather Oland says they’re focusing on these emerging markets because “they’re also the focus of the province and so that helps to align our efforts with the significant resources of the province.”
She says it also offers new opportunities for mostly small to mid-sized businesses in the community.
“Our regional marketplace is growing and expanding and so our businesses are really busy serving the local and regional markets which is great,” she says.
“At the same time we also know that economic systems ebb and flow and diversifying products, diversifying customers, diversifying markets, is a really important part of keeping economies sustainable and keeping growth going.”
Now that IPG has hosted a series of these workshops, are they able to quantify how successful they’ve been?
“It’s the start of relationships with businesses that are considering expanding into some international markets,” Oland says. “And then we continue that relationship through the business retention and expansion program in an ongoing way. We follow-up with those businesses to see what their next steps are and how they fare.”
How about quantifying the success of other IPG programs like “Move Up Prince George?”
“Move Up Prince George, we are very pleased with. We continue to see significant interaction with the website in the target markets that we’re targetting,” she says. “We actually have had a number of reports from businesses and from realtors that are either hiring people, or in the case of realtors, helping them find accommodation and housing through the website.”
But are there actual numbers that reveal how many people have moved to Prince George due to the campaign?
“So that’s the part that’s tough to quantify. We need to work with realtors, we need people to follow-up with us,” Oland says.
“We talk to 500 people in Toronto, maybe one of them gets in touch with us and says hey, I moved here. But the vast majority of people just wouldn’t do that.”
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Now that IPG has hosted a series of these workshops, are they able to quantify how successful they’ve been?
“It’s the start of relationships with businesses that are considering expanding into some international markets,” Oland says. “And then we continue that relationship through the business retention and expansion program in an ongoing way. We follow-up with those businesses to see what their next steps are and how they fare.”
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LOL….
IPG should focus on PG, working to get business and investment here, there are hundreds of people from India doing business on the import side not export, but talk with them. IPG receives PG tax dollars should focus on PG most exporters in wood, minerals have their own marketing programs and staff. Just what are these people doing that really benefits PG, they have lost direction and meaning.
CEO Heather Oland says they’re focusing on these emerging markets because “We are tired of going to China and want a free trip to India instead”
IPG needs to go. It has nothing to offer to the City of Prince George, or its tax paying residents. Perhaps a few of the staff could work at City Hall but that should be about all.
We need a review of all these organizations that survive on tax dollars, ie; Tourism Prince George, Community Policing, and IPG.
We all know IPG is a waste of over a million a year. I don’t remember reading anything about it during the $350,000 audit.
Shut the doors now and use the money for better, not a few over paid friends. Not sure how building a few websites, having a few meetings a year make the annual cost worth it..
Good work . Diversification is definetly the way to go . And piggybacking on the provincial push should save time , money and energy . Nice to see not everyone is so fibre oriented . It will be interesting to see what they come up with . There’s more to pg than just killing trees . Another thing to keep in mind is that the vast majority of Indians are Hindu . That fact should not be over looked .
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