A message from the Executive Director of the South Niagara Chambers

DOLORES FABIANO Executive Director South Niagara Chambers of Commerce

On February 16th, a delegation of our Board Members attended the Niagara USA 100th Anniversary Gala. While we have attended their annual gala in the past this year’s event was special. As many of you know our South Niagara Chambers and the Niagara USA Chamber were the first to sign a bi-national memorandum of understanding and establish a bi-national associate membership back in 2016. On February 16th we announced that we would continue to build on our original MOU by creating a Bi-National Council. The purpose of the council will be to: ensure equal representation from members of both the Niagara USA and South Niagara Chambers of Commerce membership; host regular meetings to discuss issues of common interest; facilitate educational forums for the betterment of all members; engage the combined membership for input to the Bi-National Council. The more we work together with our neighbours to the south, the more we realize that their challenges are our challenges and vice versa. We have businesses in Ontario that want to do business in New York. There are businesses in New York that want to do business in Ontario. The fact that both sides have an FTZ designation and facilities and services ready to assist gives us a real advantage in Niagara…an advantage

that we have not yet fully utilized. On March 28th, we hosted our first meeting of our Bi-National Committee. The meeting was very productive allowing us to identify additional committee members who share the vision of creating opportunities for many other Niagara businesses. Following our meeting we participated in the South Niagara Chambers of Commerce first Joint BA5 of the year, which was hosted by CanadaBW Logistics. In addition to our American friends we were also joined by members of the Toronto Tianjin Business Association and the Bank of China. We truly believe that as we welcome other nations to our table, global opportunities for local businesses will grow. As we become more comfortable with protocols, regulations and culture in other countries our ability to more effectively communicate and understand the possibilities will grow. In deed the foundation that we began building in 2016 has already allowed us to grow!