Department of Industry, Trade and Technology

Economic Development A Priority For Government
Backgrounder

Stimulating the economy by creating new wealth and employment growth is necessary to generate revenue to pay for important expenditures such as social programs. Government has demonstrated its commitment to economic development by maintaining funding in the 1996-97 budget for the following initiatives:

• AGENCY OF RECORD -The Province must proceed with a well-developed and executed communications campaign in national and international markets building on the right place for business" success in order to attract new investment to the province. Utilizing an Agency of Record to assist in the development and execution of our international marketing campaign has been identified as a priority. The $1.1 million budget for this initiative has been maintained for this year and we will continue to build on success to date.
• TRADE SHOWS AND EXHIBITIONS PROGRAM. The Program supports government and private sector participation in key sector exhibitions and trade missions in provincial, national and international markets. The goals of this program are to build exports of Newfoundland an Labrador goods and services and stimulate increased investment activity in the province.
• INVESTMENT PROSPECTING. Funds available for identifying, monitoring and pursuing investment prospecting leads has been maintained. This is a strategy led by DITT to aggressively chase leads on companies that are potential candidates to re-locate or establish operations in the province..
• ESTABLISHMENT OF OTTAWA OFFICE. A decision was taken prior to this year's budget to establish a strategic procurement office in Ottawa to assist local firms in procuring federal government and private sector contracts. Funding for this initiative has been maintained. Newfoundland and Labrador companies have traditionally not received a fair share of federal government contracts. Establishing the Ottawa office is part of concerted efforts to improve this situation by assisting local companies in the federal procurement process.
• TAX HARMONIZATION Government expressed its commitment to harmonize the provincial Retail Sales Tax (RST) with the federal government's Goods and Services tax (GST) in the Strategic Economic Plan. Harmonizing both taxes will provide additional incentives to businesses and will assist in the province's efforts to encourage investment in the province through programs such as the Economic Development and Growth Enterprises (EDGE ) program.