INTERNATIONAL
Setting Salish
Salish Sea presents new opportunities for Cork in Vancouver and Seattle The Salish region between Vancouver, Canada and Seattle in the Pacific North West of the US is not a region that, as a Chamber, we have had any great connection with on a business level. Located on the far side of North America and a few hours flight from San Francisco the region has been somewhat passed over as a destination for official connections with Ireland.
Conversely, Vancouver is a city with a strong Irish presence, core values and a business outlook that aligns with that of Cork Chamber, our members and wider Cork region. The very welcoming Consulate General of Ireland, Vancouver opened their state-of-the-art offices in 2018. Since then, they have made great advances in giving a central base to a very large expat community and what was an array of different diaspora groups which spread generations, sectors and interests.
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The Ireland – Canada Chamber of Commerce is one such group and the most recent chapter to the network. Eoin Logan, the Membership Director, (pictured above) gave a detailed insight into the large and growing Irish diaspora who are building careers in the city while working to maintain a close connection
with Ireland. We hope to work with the ICCC-Van in the near future.
The World Trade Centre Vancouver, Greater Vancouver Board of Trade is the international wing of what is the Vancouver Chamber. WTC-Van help businesses grow their business internationally through market activation programmes and the opportunity was taken to pitch Cork as a potential destination for export and investment. It’s always great to learn best practice from other organisations in your field. A productive conversation with Invest Vancouver has already yielded further connections that were not in place. It was really interesting to hear how Vancouver promotes itself for investment and collaboration. There are numerous similarities between Vancouver and Cork, including emerging industries such as renewable energy and cleantech, targets to make both cities carbon neutral, while our regions offer a quality of life that is hard to beat. Cork Chamber looks forward to building on these new connections and, with so many Irish and Cork diaspora in the region, there is a natural connection already in place.
Seattle is a city with a thriving ICT, Cyber and renewables sectors and there is already a strong Irish state agency presence there with both the IDA and Enterprise Ireland. It was great to get inside knowledge from the people on the ground; including how both inward and outward investment patterns have shifted since the pandemic which has created new challenges and opportunities for Ireland and Irish companies. Opportunities which are sure to be capitalised on. Choose Washington opened their doors to Cork Chamber and it was very interesting to hear of the State’s developed green hydrogen system and their focus on the circular economy, including using the waste heat generated by data centres to provide heat to nearby buildings in the city. We are always open to new connections especially when it makes sense from a cultural, economic and values perspective. If you are interested in finding out more about opportunities in these cities, please contact connect@ corkchamber.ie.
