The Burnaby Board of Trade is launching a website to attract new businesses to Burnaby.
Paul Holden, board president and CEO, spoke to Burnaby council at Monday night’s meeting about the business portal, which is nearing completion.
“I really see this as a bit of a game changer for us, in the role that we have here as an economic development agency,” he said. “We’re putting ourselves in a position where we can really be more proactive and effective than we’ve been able to in the past.”
The board has been consulting with city staff and Burnaby institutions and organizations for the project.
The website has eight sections, according to Holden, which include information on post-secondary educational institutions, the school district, labour force and demographics, location, economic indicators, liveability – which has a video from Tourism Burnaby – and key sectors.
“It really gives a good overall profile on businesses that are here in the city,” he said.
It also has a section that shows all the commercial properties available in the city, Holden said, with information for commercial real estate agents or site selectors, looking for locations for new businesses.
The board has worked with city staff to tweak some sections, including economic plans and strategies, which link to pages on the city’s website.
“We thought it was important to put everything together here,” Holden said. “This website here has already been through a few folks at the city.”
The website also includes sections on doing business in the city, and with city hall, he said.
“This website really does provide a portal for any business looking to move, to know what we have here in Burnaby,” he added.
Mayor Derek Corrigan mentioned the close relationship between the board and the city, and how the website reflects that.
“I think it’s been a very symbiotic relationship between us, to really encourage businesses to get involved with the board of trade from the very beginning,” he said, adding the board now has more than 1,000 members.
“It’s an interesting way to bring together information from the city’s website that focuses on this point of view, and to utilize information from other sources to give a perspective business a really good snapshot of what Burnaby’s like,” he said of the website.
The website is about 95 per cent finished, according to Holden.
