Estevan’s economic development co-ordinator was in Vietnam recently to promote the community and to try to attract investment.
Dwight Bramble was in the Asian country from Dec. 1-10, where he attended the TechFest trade show in Halong from Dec. 2-4.
“It’s been going on four years now, and during the four years, they have seen over 15,000 attendees and they’ve had over 2,000 participants,” said Bramble. “And so we were invited to be part of a booth over there, and I had the Estevan banner up there, and I had Estevan promotion materials.”
Bramble said there is an agency in Saskatoon named the Vietnam Immigration and Investment Agency (VIICA), which is headed by Kevin Nguyen, who invited him to Vietnam.
There were representatives from Saskatoon who joined Bramble in a Saskatchewan delegation. He worked out of a booth for Online Forum Automation Systems while at Techfest.
“We met with very many different potential investors who want to get into manufacturing, technology, education, agri-value, geothermal and renewable energy, pretty much all of the sectors that we have emphasized as priorities,” said Bramble.
This year’s Techfest had more than 6,000 people attend and more than 300 exhibitors. People came from as far away as the U.K. and Australia, with well-known companies such as Samsung attending, making it a big international event.
After Techfest was finished, Bramble was able to meet with several potential investors who have expressed an interest in coming to Canada. He tried to convince them to come to Estevan. Meetings were held in the capital of Hanoi and it Ho Chi Minh City in south Vietnam.
Bramble noted that Premier Scott Moe has voiced a desire in working with the VIICA in looking at potential trade and investment opportunities with the Asian nation, and so Bramble said Estevan, in a sense, is leading the way.
He described the trip as promising. He has already started connecting some Estevan companies and potential investors in Vietnam.
“We’re looking to have a group of them come over here in May … or June of next year to check it out,” said Bramble.
Some of the people he met with had never heard of Saskatchewan, let alone Estevan, so a big part of his efforts overseas were to promote the province and the city.
One company he met with is interested in trading in coal and oil, and their interest was piqued when they heard that Estevan is home to both industries.
“Their population is close to 100 million people, so there’s a great demand for energy and those types of goods and services,” said Bramble. “There’s a company who wants to partner with a post-secondary education to establish … a training school.”
Another company was interested in manufacturing to develop products from oil and coal, while another was interested in automobile assembly.
“There’s a wide range of companies, and there were lots of others we met who are just interested in Canada, because, of course, Canada is an attractive place to invest … and I tried my best to sell Estevan … and Saskatchewan as the city and province of choice.”
The government officials from the Ministry of Science and Technology in Vietnam even invited Estevan to host a Techfest in 2020, and they would be willing to work with Estevan to get it going, with Canadian companies participating.
“I think it would be a great opportunity ofr Estevan to put on something like that, and target a lot of the provincial and Canadian companies, and some international companies as well. I think it would be great exposure for the city.”
