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• > STEP Article - February 1, 2010

The Leader Post

Bringing Saskatchewan to the World

Bruce Johnstone - The Leader-Post - February 1, 2010

Officially, the mandate of the Saskatchewan Trade and Export Partnership (STEP) is to 'enhance the trade and exports of goods, services and technology to or from Saskatchewan.''

Unofficially, STEP's job is to bring Saskatchewan to the world -- and the world to Saskatchewan.

The government-industry partnership, formed in 1996 from elements of the former Economic Development and Trade department, was designed to get more private-sector input and involvement in the design and delivery of trade promotion programs for exporters.

The board of directors of STEP is made up almost entirely of exporters, while the staff consists generally of young professional types with a keen interest in business and international trade.

Aside from about $3 million in annual funding from the provincial government, STEP generates its own revenues from memberships, operating overseas projects for the UN and CIDA, hosting conferences, and holding seminars, among other activities.

With a small staff of about 30, STEP covers the world for its 400 or so members -- attending trade shows, representing or accompanying companies on trade missions, arranging meetings with buyers and hosting events in Saskatchewan for STEP members and their customers.

Not surprisingly, this is one busy group of people. In fact, it's hard, if not impossible, to gather them up in one place at any given point in time.

The closest thing is STEP's regular staff meeting, held at STEP's Regina head office at 1801 Hamilton St. and its Saskatoon office on 402-21st St. E. STEP president and CEO Lionel LaBelle recently invited the Leader-Post to sit in on one of these meetings, which took place Jan. 27.

The following is a brief account of that meeting, just to give readers an idea of the wide range of activities and far-flung corners of the world in which STEP staff are active.

LaBelle opened the meeting by introducing two guests from the Leader-Post, then turned the floor over to Brad Michnik, executive director of trade development for STEP, who spoke from the Saskatoon office via videoconference.

Michnik explained that trade development is 'the unit within STEP that does the market intelligence work ... as well as organizes an aggressive program of trade missions and the trade activities of incoming buyers who come into the province to source goods and services.''

For example, Michnik said, he was meeting with two STEP-sponsored Saskatchewan delegates of an upcoming Junior Team Canada trade mission to Singapore and Malaysia.

'We're going to charge them with some specific responsibilities to help them develop their international business skills,'' Michnik said. 'It will pertain to doing some market intelligence work in a specific sector.''

Michnik is also involved in organizing a seminar with the Canada-China Business Council in Saskatoon on March 2 on the subject of doing business in China. Also in early March, Michnik is going to meet with other export trade organizations, like Nova Scotia Business Inc., to discuss innovative ways of promoting export trade.

'It's really a best-practices initiative in the sense that we want to learn from people doing similar work.''

Michnik said he and another STEP trade specialist, Yi Zeng, are working on a STEP trade mission to China and Mongolia in early April. 'We're going to start digging a little deeper into that market to see what opportunities are there for agricultural equipment.''

STEP members on the trade mission will also be attending AGMET, a large agricultural trade show in Beijing. 'We think there are some pretty good opportunities in China.''

Angela Wojcichowsky, international projects officer, outlined some of the projects going on in STEP's export services division.

'We just got in an expression of interest for a project in Tajikistan (a mountainous, landlocked country in Central Asia) with the Asian Development Bank. It's a rural development project that is almost a replication of the FARM project (in Ukraine).' STEP is joining forces with a Swedish consulting firm and a local Tajikistan company to bid on the project, she said.

'That (expression of interest) went in this morning at about four o'clock, because we had to have it translated into Russian,'' Wojcichowsky added.

STEP staff will also be attending a trade mission in Manila, Philippines, sponsored by the Asian Development Bank, which funds development projects in Central Asia. 'We're looking at meeting with people from Tajikistan, Mongolia and Kazakhstan,'' she said.

Then it's on to Vietnam and Bangladesh for more meetings. Finally, Wojcichowsky will journey to Kiev, Ukraine, in March to close up the STEP-managed FARM project. The Facility for Agriculture Reform and Modernization (FARM) project, which was supported by the federal government, along with the provinces of Saskatchewan, Alberta and Manitoba, is 'one of the largest and most comprehensive agricultural projects funded by CIDA in Ukraine.''

Since 2003, FARM has trained more than 40,000 people and improved farming practices on more than 1,000 farms in Ukraine. 'It was 100-per-cent CIDA-funded project, but the last two years, it was cost-shared with the Ukrainian government,'' LaBelle said. 'Now we're stepping back.'

Blair Hudyma, programs and training specialist, said there are five applications being processed under the MAP program, which helps STEP members enter new export markets.

'We call it MAP, which stands for Market Access Program. We're going to take Saskatchewan companies to specific markets and we're going to help share their travel costs,'' LaBelle said. 'We think it's time to be proactive in those markets.''

In addition, five applications are also in for the Agri-Value Marketing Internship program, which provides funding for recent graduates or grad students to do market research for STEP members. Forum for International Trade Training (FITT) courses are also being offered at the STEP offices for international business professionals, he added.

'We do a lot of international (trade) training for people, whether they're government people or in business,'' LaBelle said. 'FITT training happens in this room, both in Regina and Saskatoon.''

Rob Ziola, director of trade development for manufacturing, said his team works with Saskatchewan manufacturers, such as metal fabricators, ag equipment manufacturers, building product companies, to find new markets.

In January, Ziola attended the Ag Connect Expo, sponsored by the Association of Equipment Manufacturers, in Orlando, Fla., along with about a dozen STEP member companies.

'Being the first year, it was modest in terms of attendance. The results were not as good as we hoped, but some companies got some leads,'' he said.

Ziola said the large Mongolian presence at the Ag Connect show confirms STEP is on the 'right track'' in terms of targeting Mongolia and China as promising markets for Saskatchewan exporters.

'These are two areas that have had growth ... and there are good opportunities there for equipment sales.''

Following the meeting, LaBelle said STEP is billed as a 'trade-promotion agency,'' but that doesn't adequately describe what STEP actually does, referring to the 2,600 qualified leads generated, 252 market intelligence reports produced, and 96-per-cent member satisfaction STEP achieved last year.

'What we do is trade facilitation. We literally introduce companies to opportunities. We show them how to do the deal, then get the hell out of the way. It's dramatically different than what governments do.

'Governments promote. We facilitate.''

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