VANCOUVER:
From
20th-Century
Gateway City
to
21st-Century
Head Office City
By Yuen Pau Woo
F
rom its inception, Vancouver has been a gateway
city connecting Canada and Asia. In the last two
decades, Canada’s Asia-Pacific Gateway has been
extended and strengthened to serve not just Canada but
all of North America. Our world-class port and airport
facilities, together with efficient road and rail infrastructure,
have positioned Vancouver as a preferred trade and
transportation hub for the trans-Pacific flow of goods
and people.
As the city matures as a gateway, the challenge for it is to
become more than just an efficient transportation hub.
The next phase in Vancouver’s evolution as a gateway city
is to build an economic base that will support sustainable
growth, in order to meet the lifestyle aspirations of its
citizens. One key strategy for building a more sustainable
and higher-value economic infrastructure is attracting
head offices to Vancouver and British Columbia in general.
We have all the ingredients to be not just a head office
city, but a uniquely 21st-century head office city – a choice
location for livability where globally connected and highly
skilled talent can work for a diverse set of businesses
performing head office functions for global markets.
The importance of being
a head office city
The opportunity is enormous: research by McKinsey and
others tells us that the Metro Vancouver region is not
achieving its potential in most measures of head office
presence, compared with other major cities in North
America. This matters not just for “company count.” One
study suggests that Vancouver has an opportunity to
SUMMER 2016
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