Tourism Winnipeg

Foreign Direct Investment Our Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) team focused its efforts on building the pipeline for more leads in 2021. We worked with sector-focused colleagues to identify Winnipeg's value proposition and differentiators to build a compelling case on why foreign investors should invest in Winnipeg. FDI and other teams across our organization learned best practices in FDI and took a robust training program of 12 courses from Wavteq, a leading FDI consultant. Staff received their Certification of Excellence in Foreign Direct Investment and Investment Promotion. Targeting foreign investors In 2021, we launched the FDI Toolbox, an ensemble of separate tools which support the identification of high- quality leads from foreign markets. This toolbox allowed us to proactively identify leads and build the investment pipeline. Many of the leads identified in the toolbox were in the following sectors: advanced manufacturing, agribusiness, life sciences and creative industries. In comparison to 2020, foreign investment leads increased by 400 per cent during 2021, an immense increase in which 80 per cent came from the FDI Toolbox. Increasing Winnipeg's visibility in international markets Pandemic travel restrictions meant we needed to find alternative ways to promote Winnipeg's competitive advantages to foreign investors. Once leads were identified, our team consulted federal partners to gather market intelligence and present our city's value proposition for the targeted companies. We worked closely with partners in markets including the United States, France and Sweden to increase the visibility of Winnipeg's advantages for investors. In addition, the team also participated in various webinars to present the city's value proposition and increase the awareness of Winnipeg as an investment destination. We began efforts to build FDI-specific marketing promotional tools, including videos featuring testimonials about the Salvador Maniquiz 18 2021 ANNUAL REPORT

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