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|  | Liaison Newsletter > LIAISON Vol. 2, No. 2, March 1998 - Articles
Procurement With Potential With the United Nations system currently representing a market of an estimated US$3 billion, more and more Canadian firms are realizing that it is worth pursuing the lucrative opportunities available in conducting business with the UN. "UNA-Canada’s role in procurement is strengthening. We are generating more and more interest from Canadian companies", said Nectaria Skokos, UN Business Development Officer at UNA-Canada. The Association is currently organizing a workshop on "How to Sell to the United Nations", to be held on April 27, 1998, in Calgary, Alberta, as part of the interBUILD Housing and Construction Show. The procurement seminar will provide Canadian companies with insight into the opportunities available for conducting business with the UN. The seminar promises to be of particular interest to companies engaged in selling temporary housing, construction and related services, as well as environmental products and health-care facilities. Senior UN procurement representatives will be on site to interact with participants. The event in Calgary will be the second in a series of day-long procurement workshops that began with the inaugural seminar a year and a half ago in Montréal, Québec. The October 1996 event was the first major procurement seminar to be held in Canada, and appropriately drew close to ninety businesses from around the province. The seminar was facilitated by representatives from various UN agencies and government, as well as from Canadian businesses which already have procured contracts from the United Nations. Several key UN officials animated workshops in the afternoon, providing invaluable insight into the process of doing business with the UN. The Montréal seminar also witnessed the launch of a manual, “Selling to UN Agencies: A Canadian Business Strategy”. The Guide was developed as a complement to the seminars, providing Canadian companies with the tools needed to develop a succesful business strategy. Chocked full of useful information about Canada’s procurement performance, the manual includes profiles on the UN system and the processes involved in selling goods and services to the United Nations. It also evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of Canadian companies in the area of procurement, and highlights the opportunities and obstacles faced by Canadian firms. For example, the UN views Canadian companies’ bilingualism as an asset, but their general inability to market themselves more aggressively, as a disadvantage. These observations are based on the experience gained by Canadian exporters, by Canadian trade missions abroad and by UN officials. Now in its final stage of development, the new second edition will include updates on all of this information, plus close to one-hundred pages of new UN procurement statistics and contact names. The manual will be made available to businesses across the country in late March, 1998. As a precursor to the seminar in Calgary, UNA-Canada, along with twenty-six other Canadian business representatives, participated in a Procurement Mission held in New York from January 22-23. The mission was sponsored by the Canadian Consulate, the Permanent Mission of Canada to the UN and the Délégation générale du Québec in NY. This is just one of the ways, along with the initiatives taken by UNA-Canada, that Canada is trying to open up the UN’s procurement system to the Canadian business community. It is still too soon to know the outcome of mission, but overall, companies left with better understanding of the UN system, and how to increase their chances of success. |
