Mayors Column

New Beginnings : City of Vancouver’s business development strategy is making an impact

The recipe for a successful business development strategy at the municipal level is grounded in planning, consistency, and employing a multifaceted approach. Coming from an entrepreneurial background has always inspired me to be very proactive in creating a competitive and thriving business climate for Vancouver.  The platform that I ran on to become Mayor articulated plans to establish a “West Coast Economic Strategy to promote Vancouver business” through “business development and strategic partnerships.”

This pledge represented the initial planning stage to take the notion of an economically thririving city from a proposal to a new reality. And, I quickly realized that one of the largest and most under-utilized assets that the City of Vancouver had within its purview was the Vancouver Economic Development Commission (VEDC).

Tasked with establishing a competitive business climate that puts the city ahead of competitor jurisdictions, the Commission had been badly neglected by past administrations and never given a clear vision in which to focus its efforts.

In the early stages of my tenure in office, I and city staff worked closely with the VEDC to develop “Green Capital,” which is a strategy to take advantage of the widespread convergence of technology and environmental issues across the globe.  Because Vancouver is widely recognized as a hub for green collar jobs and has cutting edge clean energy, mobility and green building projects within our borders, it only made sense to develop a branding that would attract business interest and investment into the city.

Once Green Capital was introduced, it was important that the other business development components of consistency and a multifaceted array of offerings worked collaboratively with one another.

The City of Vancouver participated in the Metro Vancouver Commerce initiative, where nine Metro Vancouver municipalities unveiled details of an unprecedented joint initiative to attract foreign investment and strengthen the region’s economy through hosting of the 2010 Olympic and Paralympics Winter Games.

Within 60 days of the close of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, we were able to announce that the program had brought over $60 million in investment into the region.