The Windsor-Essex Economic Development Corporation hopes signing an agreement with a South Korean city will open doors for local business.
The Corporation has signed a Memorandum Of Understanding with the City of Guro.
CEO Stephen MacKenzie says the agreement won't remove tariffs, but it does cement a good, working relationship with the city.
"Sometimes it's difficult to establish business connections and having a relationship with the city officials helps to eliminate a lot of those barriers," he says.
And it works both ways. MacKenzie hopes South Korean businesses will put Windsor-Essex higher on their list of places to invest in North America if they know who to contact and what the region has to offer.
Canada already has a good trade relationship with the Asian country.
"I saw a [statistic] that it was $5-billion in foreign direct investment from Korea into Canada," says MacKenzie. "We only need a very small piece of that to consider this initiative very successful."
He also says Guro has a lot to offer Windsor-Essex and the two regions are planning a trade mission here during the North American International Auto Show in Detroit this January.
"The City of Guro is home to some very sophisticated I.T. companies that are working in the software area related to autonomous vehicles, and we have companies in the production of hardware," he says. "We said maybe the city would consider coming back to attend the show with representatives of its companies. We could arrange meetings with some of our companies."
Earlier this week, the Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board signed its own memorandum of understanding with the city to bring more international students to Windsor-Essex.
