ARCHIVED - Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency

The $10‑million IBDP will continue the work of the partners until 2010. Funding for the agreement is shared 70/30 by ACOA and provincial governments. The IBDP’s mandate is to undertake specific measures to optimize regional coordination on a pan‑Atlantic scale, and combine limited resources to coordinate trade‑related activities. The commitment to this IBDP, with the increased funding allocation, attests to both the IBDA’s positive results and its significance for the future of the region’s international business development. see http://www.acoa-apeca.gc.ca/English/ibda/Pages/HomePage.aspx  

• increased number of new exporters;
• existing exporters reporting sales to new markets; and
• existing exporters reporting increased sales to existing markets.

Since the original IBDA commenced in 1994, the Agency and its partners have administered over 207 projects involving some 3,500 Atlantic Canadian companies. The IBDA has assisted 182 companies to begin exporting; 380 exporters to increase their export sales; and 259 exporters to expand into new markets.

• ACOA (lead department - 70% funding)
• Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada – non-funding partner
• Industry Canada – non-funding partner

Provincial governments (30% funding)

• Business New Brunswick
• Nova Scotia Business Inc.
• Newfoundland and Labrador Department of Innovation, Trade and Rural Development
• Prince Edward Island Business Development Inc.

The core of the TCA approach is the trade mission, which enables small and medium-sized businesses from across Atlantic Canada to meet with potential buyers, agents, distributors and strategic partners in the United States. The mission format features a comprehensive program that equips private sector participants with the knowledge, contacts and advice they require to make the best of their international opportunities (especially before, during and after their ventures abroad). Missions also provide the Government of Canada and the Atlantic provincial governments with crucial opportunities to promote the region as an attractive location for foreign investment. The initiative also helps commercialize technology and raise the region’s visibility. See the TCA website at http://www.teamcanadaatlantic.ca/.

• increase export readiness of Atlantic Canadian SMEs;
• develop new partnerships/alliances between Atlantic Canadian SMEs and companies in target markets; and
• increase Atlantic Canadian SME export sales to new and established markets, as well as raise awareness of Atlantic Canada in these markets.

As of November 2008, Team Canada Atlantic had completed 14 missions to United States markets, involving 530 companies and more than 3,665 business meetings, and resulting in excess of $45 million in actual sales.

• ACOA
• Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada (FAITC) – non-funding partner
• Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) – $6,000/mission

AAFC $132,000