On November
16, over 300
students, faculty and staff at Ivey and
Western as well as the general public
heard about the importance of
engaging emerging markets and that
Canadian companies aren’t doing enough
to engage emerging economies.
Speakers at
the conference included Shyamala Cowsik,
High Commissioner of India, Valdemar
Carneiro Leão, Ambassador of Brazil,
Weidong Zhang, Minister Counsellor of
China and Yuen Pau Woo, President &
Co-CEO, Asia-Pacific Foundation of
Canada.
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| Heather Hiscox moderating
public debate |
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Woo asked
the conference attendees if they felt
Canada was ready to be part of a
“Pacific” future considering that one of
Canada’s main borders is the Pacific
Ocean. He said the Canadians need to
alter their mental map to make the
Pacific a more important part of the
picture.
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| Con Steers with
participants |
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Emerging
markets are making changes in the world
in an “awesome” way, Woo said, meaning
in a way that inspires awe and
wonderment. Countries such as China,
India, Brazil and Japan are not only
giants because of their economic clout,
but also because of the way they are
changing the rules of the game.
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| Shyamala Cowsik with
Ivey students |
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Shyamala
Cowsik said Canada hasn’t been fast
enough to take advantage of “the Indian
advantage.”
With the fourth largest economy in the
world – and one that is growing at more
than 7% annually, she urged Canadian
students to look at India for
internships. She said some students are
already telling her they’re taking
internships in India and passing up
other countries because they know it
will look good on their resumes.
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| Valdemar Carneiro
Leão
with participants |
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Several
speakers pointed to the increasing value
of the work that’s being done in
emerging markets. China is not merely
the manufacturing workshop of the world,
said Woo. Cowsik pointed out that at
J.P. Morgan, one-third of their
investment banking staff back office and
support staff will soon be located in
India and other overseas locations.
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| Conference co-host Paul
Beamish with Shyamala Cowsik and
Yuen
Pau Woo |
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Noting that
Brazil isn’t as large as India and
China, Leão said one of the challenges
for Brazil is that it needs to achieve
higher growth rates than the current
2.5%. He also pointed out that there is
more Brazilian investment in Canada than
Canadian investments in Brazil.
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| Weidong Zhang with Gigi
Wong and
Paul Beamish |
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Zhang said
Canada continues to play an important
role in the world, especially in the
political arena. He said with 1.3
billion people, China will continue
developing as a country for quite some
time.
He also encouraged Canadian students to
study in China – noting there are 55,000
Chinese students at Canadian
universities and colleges, but only
about 1,000 Canadian students in China.
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View presentation
handouts (682KB
pdf)- GM's China Engagement |
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View presentation
handouts (274KB
pdf)- Deloitte's Talent Sourcing
in India |
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View
keynote speech (26KB pdf)-
Why do Emerging Markets Matter? |
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