Speaking Notes for Address by
Judy Foote, Minister of Development and Rural Renewal,
to the Export Workshop
Clarenville Inn
January 29, 1997

It is a pleasure to address today's "Exporting for Profit" workshop. I would particularly like to acknowledge the staff of the Clarenville office of my department who have put a lot of long and hard hours into preparing for today�s workshop. I thank them for the time and energy they have put into developing today's activities and to the Clarenville Chamber of Commerce and ScotiaBank for their support and sponsorship. I am pleased to see such an interest by all of you here today, in exploring the potential which lies in exporting your products and services, for profit.

On the heels of the recent Team Canada mission to South Korea, Thailand and the Philippines, the topic of exporting is an extremely timely one. As many of you are no doubt aware, Premier Brian Tobin recently returned from a most successful Team Canada trade mission. The Premier led representatives from seven companies and organizations from this province to participate in the mission.

The Premier and the local delegation joined Prime Minister Chretien, the other provincial premiers and territorial leaders, and delegates from about 400 companies and organizations from across Canada. With their eyes on the rapidly developing Asian marketplace, this government-led mission provided an excellent means for local companies to capitalize on global opportunities.

Many of you are no doubt familiar with the companies from Newfoundland and Labrador who participated in the mission. Two of those companies are located not far from here: Fibreglass Works Ltd. of Centreville, who make computer-designed pleasure boats, and Rodriguez Wines of Markham. The other companies who participated included EDM International of Deer Lake, an engineering company which signed a $1.7 million contract in Thailand for waste and water treatment systems, CanPolar East Inc., Nautical Data International, Provincial Airlines Limited, and Breakwater Books. Combined with an eight company delegation of fishing industry representatives that made a separate trip to China, this represented the highest number of Newfoundland and Labrador companies who have participated in a mission of this nature.

I will now take the next few minutes to speak to you about the importance of exporting to improving the overall performance of our economy and the benefits it brings to Newfoundland and Labrador. I will also outline what your provincial government, and the Department of Development and Rural Renewal in particular is doing to encourage business growth and opportunity in Newfoundland and Labrador, and highlight some local success stories of the many small and medium-sized businesses all over this province who have successfully tapped into the global marketplace.

Government's plan for economic growth
Government has a solid long-term plan for economic growth in this province. This plan includes diversifying our resource-based economy in areas such as aquaculture, manufacturing, tourism and information technology. It�s about looking at our strengths and developing our potential in areas we may not have concentrated on before.

The crafts industry, for example, is an industry which I believe has a great deal of potential in this province. It is particularly a growth area for our rural regions as many craftspeople work out of their own homes. I have often said that if we could produce the quantity of product with the same exceptional quality, we would be tapping into the industry�s potential to a much greater extent. In fact, with this year�s Cabot 500 festivities, many local craftspeople are finding already that demand for their products has greatly increased. With the number of tourists expected to visit our province this year, it�s an excellent opportunity for local craftspeople to display their products.

Government is also working to create an environment in which business and industry can thrive. We are working to develop new opportunities and to attract new investment to create jobs and promote long-term economic development, especially in rural areas of the province. We are building partnerships with the people of our province through consultation.

One area which my department is examining is the food processing industry. This province possesses many strengths in this sector which makes us very competitive in the global marketplace. These strengths, when coupled with strong partnerships which government has formed with private sector players in the industry, is strategically working towards a more coordinated, aggressive approach to targeting specialty niche markets.

Government's plan for economic growth is about using innovative, imaginative ideas to enhance the productivity and competitiveness of our products and services in the local and global marketplace. But most importantly, we are committed to achieving results.

These results, which form the basis for the future prosperity of our Province, depend upon the drive, commitment and success of the private sector. The efforts of government can only be successful if they support and enhance the creativity and competitiveness of the business community.

Central to this success is our ability to penetrate the global marketplace. This means exporting, and exporting means more than just having the capability to provide products and services that others need around the world. It means being aware of specific opportunities that exist and aggressively pursuing them in a very competitive environment. Government is assisting business explore those opportunities, and is taking concrete steps to enhance the economic environment of the province and is cultivating the potential for growth of small to medium-sized businesses in this context.

In an increasingly competitive global economy, we must be more outward looking in our approach to economic development and create the type of business climate that allows the private sector to respond to new business opportunities beyond our shores. The Department of Industry, Trade and Technology is doing its part to encourage business growth through the EDGE legislation, for example, which has approved 44 companies representing $171 million dollars in potential new investment in the province since EDGE was passed in January 1995.

ITT is also actively involved in external investment prospecting, and through national and international marketing campaigns, including trade missions of the nature recently led by Premier Tobin.

Exploring export opportunities
One way in which my own department is working globally is through the identification of strategic business opportunities with our French neighbours off the coast of Newfoundland.

The French islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon offer economic potential that has never been fully realized in this province. I have met with the French Ambassador to Canada, the Prefect for St. Pierre and Miquelon and the French General Consul for the Atlantic Provinces to forge a new partnership to pursue economic opportunities for the benefit of the people of this province as well as for those resident in St. Pierre and Miquelon. A major opportunity which we are aggressively investigating is the gateway offered by St. Pierre and Miquelon to the enormous market of the European Economic Union.

St. Pierre and Miquelon has special status in the European Economic Community which may offer tariff and other customs related advantages for Newfoundland based businesses if they partner with or carry out some level of value added activities in St. Pierre.

St. Pierre and Miquelon also currently imports approximately $100 million worth of goods and services. Of that $100 million, only $3.4 million comes from Newfoundland and Labrador. That�s $96.6 million which St. Pierre and Miquelon is importing from somewhere else. For example, in 1995, the French islands imported $500,000 worth of milk and cream, $225,000 worth of butter and $87,000 worth of eggs. But none of those products were imported from this province. Our French neighbours also imported over a half a million dollars worth of potatoes, $500,000 worth of cement and over half a million dollars worth of sawed timber. These are just a few examples of the types of basic import requirements which St. Pierre and Miquelon has and which Newfoundland and Labrador may be able to provide on a competitive basis. We feel there are substantial opportunities here which have gone largely untapped to date.

My department is taking the lead on the St. Pierre initiative, and will be consulting widely within the business community to tap the economic potential available from a stronger economic relationship with our French neighbours. These are global opportunities at our doorstep which can be of benefit to Newfoundlanders and Labradorians throughout the province if we aggressively pursue them.

Another initiative of note that my department has recently embarked upon through the Canada/Newfoundland Agreement on Economic Renewal, is a business study that is being coordinated at Memorial University's Centre for International Business Studies. Blair Winsor, who spoke to you at a session this morning, is the Director of the Centre. The project, which is called the North Atlantic Islands Economic Review, will result in strategic business information being shared between Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland, Iceland, the Aland Islands which belong to Finland, and the Isle of Man. The program focuses on sharing knowledge about four specific economic sectors: small scale manufacturing; primary resources; tourism; and the export of knowledge-based services.

The applied research is designed to give businesses and policy- makers information on how similar jurisdictions to ours in the world have dealt with similar economic challenges confronting them. Until now, no one has examined or compared how each of these island economies has approached its long term economic challenges.

Newfoundlanders and Labradorians in the global marketplace
Now I will take a few minutes to talk to you about the many successes that small and medium sized businesses are having right here in Newfoundland and Labrador in penetrating the global marketplace. The growth of small and medium-sized business enterprises represents, in no small measure, the future of Newfoundland and Labrador, and their success is dependent on being competitive in export markets.

Last year's Newfoundland and Labrador Export Award winners included Wood-Pick Enterprises of Wareham, Bonavista Bay and Seaborne Information Technologies of St. John�s. Wood-Pick Enterprises is a smoked seafood processing operation which specializes in smoked Atlantic Salmon, sea urchin roe and other smoked seafood products. Wood-Pick markets smoked salmon to the CP Hotel chain and has also successfully penetrated markets in Switzerland and Mexico.

Seaborne Information Technologies exports SmartMate, an automated shipboard emergency response planning system for oil pollution. The company has installed systems operating in Europe, Southeast Asia, the U.S. and Canada since 1992.

Newfoundland based commodities that many of us take for granted such as dimension stone, berries and value added wood products are also gaining recognition in the global marketplace today. For example, Newfoundland Slate at Burgoyne�s Cove exports a relatively rare green slate to Europe, Japan and Australia. Their precambrian slate is said to be tougher than the slate of their competitors. Indian Bay Foods exports berries to Holland, France, Germany, Sweden and England. Berries from this province have become known by Europeans to have superior texture and taste. Cottles Island Lumber exports its construction lumber to Miami where Newfoundland spruce has earned a reputation for being more durable than timber grown in more southerly climates.

We have much to offer in service-based industries as well. Fisher Associates of Port Rexton, for example, is a management consultant company operated by John and Peggy Fisher. They have an international base of clients whom they serve largely by fax, phone and through the Internet. Sheppard and Green is an engineering company right here in Clarenville that does geophysical design work for companies in Atlantic Canada. Ian Edwards of Lewin's Cove positions fibre optic cables with pinpoint accuracy on the bottom of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. As a student, Mr. Edwards left Newfoundland to become a geomatics engineer. Upon returning to Newfoundland, he started his own company Edwards and Associates. With his special skills Mr. Edwards is able to live in Newfoundland yet apply his skills anywhere in the world.

Non-resource based manufacturing is a sector in this province which has been growing considerably of late. It currently generates over a half a billion dollars in revenue every year and employs over 6000 people. A few examples of local manufacturers who have tapped into the global marketplace include Barry Coates of Wing's Point near Gander. Mr. Coates makes snowshoes in a workshop behind his house. He has recently secured a five year contract with a retailer in the State of Maine who considers Mr. Coates� snowshoes works of art.

One business women who deserves special mention is Judy Parsons of Clarenville who makes greeting cards. Mrs. Parsons has operated her home-based business, Carded Treasures, for three years now. She produces about 80 different cards. Her most recent coup is a new contract with Cavendish Figurines of Prince Edward Island. Cavendish Figurines has hired her to make greeting cards bearing the silhouette of Anne of Green Gables.

This card is targeted at the Japanese market and will be test marketed in March. Unfortunately, Mrs. Parsons couldn�t be here today as she is headed to Halifax, Nova Scotia to participate in the Atlantic Craft Trade Show being held this coming weekend.

In addition to Mrs. Parsons, my department has assisted 17 other local businesses specializing in craft manufacturing to attend this tradeshow. We also assist participation in other tradeshows throughout the year. My department has targeted trade shows such as these as being important tools in marketing products crafted in Newfoundland and Labrador across North America.

Some of the exporters I have just mentioned are here in the audience today. I offer you my warmest congratulations on your energy, drive and initiative, and I hold you up as examples of the successful exporters which are in operation all over Newfoundland and Labrador.

I hope today's workshop will awaken your interest in exporting even further and will help to pursue new business possibilities in this regard. My staff at any one of our 18 offices located across the province are available to assist you in exploring business and export-market opportunities. They have helped many of the companies I have mentioned today, and they are ready and willing to help many more.

My comments today are intended to highlight the significance of exporting to the growth of our economy. Almost 30% of this province�s GDP is currently derived from exports. Government is working to identify increasing opportunities for Newfoundlanders and Labradorians in the global marketplace. As I have illustrated here today, Newfoundland and Labrador has a long history and a bright future in the export trade. I encourage all of you as you pursue your own export business opportunities and wish you every success.

Thank you.