TradeCanada

Boosting international trade is the way New Zealand will beat the recession and increase its prosperity. Our enterprises see two-way trade overseas as a good move, and they recognise the need for assistance when dealing with different trading conditions, people and markets as they expand and bring back a wealth of new experiences, product and service enhancements to NZ. For this reason, Enterprise North Shore and SB2 International Ventures are looking over the US border at Canada and leveraging an opportunity to help enterprises expand into a supportive environment and utilize that as their base for North American trade.

The opportunity presented leverages the unique characteristics of the high growth Waterloo region, which is less than an hour from Toronto in Ontario on the main route between Canada and the US. In this area, people collaborate exceptionally well to support enterprise growth and the commercialization of ideas. Waterloo is the birthplace of globally renowned enterprises such as Research in Motion, the largest listed company in Canada and the creator of the blackberry phone. As a result of such high growth, Waterloo is often referred to as the second most important high tech city in North America. Terry Hoskins, Chief Executive of Enterprise North Shore, says “The breadth and depth of collaboration is impressive. People have genuine desire to create and foster enterprise in this economically vibrant and successful part of Canada”.

The Waterloo Research and Technology Park is a focus for ICT enterprises in the region. The Waterloo Accelerator Centre, located within the park alongside Google, Open Text, RIM and Sybase, is similar in nature to our own incubators, such as the Massey e-centre, which focuses on commercialization of research and acceleration of enterprise growth, with a strong emphasis around the cultivation of technological entrepreneurship. The centre is connected to the Region’s world class tertiary institutions (Waterloo University, Wilfred Laurier University, Government, and the local economic development agency (ENS). This mirrors the connections Enterprise North Shore has as the economic development agency for North Shore City with North Shore City Council, Massey University, Unitec, AUT and the Massey e-Centre. Enterprise flourishes in each of these centers but success will be compounded - and recession abated - as their collaboration is enhanced and smooth links for two-way trade have been established.

The Accelerator Centre has a flexible relationship with its tenants who pay premium rental but include in their tenancy access to support such as training, advisory boards and various other programmes.

Criteria for companies who wish to locate in Accelerator Centre include:

• Must be capable of paying rent – there are no freebies

• Business plan must be feasible and make sense

• Must be ‘Mentorable’ – i.e. listen, learn, and heed advisors

High profile Solutions Ltd, a North Shore City based company specialising in systems compliance software, is checking out the Waterloo region and the Accelerator Centre in November with a view to establishing a base there. The links that High Profile will make with the Accelerator Centre and other organisations in the region will add considerable value to its product. It will also prepare them for future expansion into Asia from New Zealand.

The relationships being forged between Canada and New Zealand will create opportunities for Canadian businesses to use New Zealand as their expansion pathway into Australia, Pacific and Asia.

Two other features of the region that Enterprise North Shore is encouraging New Zealand Tertiary Institutes to explore and adopt are Co-operative Education Policy and Intellectual Property (IP). Co-operative education is about the tertiary education providers working cooperatively with enterprises that employ students and provide opportunities to apply what they learn as they progress throughout the degree process. Such programmes are prevalent in North America and are more than just “work experience” as they are woven into the degree structure and learning. The University of Waterloo pioneered co-operative education and has a very large, well established Co-operative Education Programme with over 12,000 students. The programme provides mutual benefits: co-operative students are paid taxable wages during co-operative placements and can largely fund the cost of their education from the proceeds, in addition to students providing valuable skills upon graduation and are often employed by enterprises that participate in the programme.

The University of Waterloo’s Intellectual Property Policy is unique and means that anyone creating IP (e.g. academics, researchers, students, and enterprises) own their own IP they create. It is not shared by the institutions thereby removing ambiguities about who had entitlement to it and provides a free hand to the IP owner to commercialise the IP as they deem fit. This open attitude, combined with collaboration and co-op education, is a defining factor of the success of the Waterloo region.

Enterprise North Shore will be pleased to provide additional information about this two-way trade opportunity. Please phone on 09 4141341 or send us an email.