The government’s on-line 2010 Commerce Centre has just launched Phase II of its program, allowing businesses to register their areas of interest and receive automatic e-mails when opportunities come up.
"It is probably the best vehicle that we have to keep business people, in particular, current with opportunities that are 2010 Olympics related," said Minister of Small Business and Economic Development John Les.
The website ( www.2010commercecentre.gov.bc.ca ) allows businesses in communities like Prince Rupert, Nelson and Port McNeil to have the same opportunities those in Vancouver or the Sea to Sky corridor would have to access the $4 billion in economic opportunities expected to be generated by the 2010 Games.
"We want to give every business and prospective business in British Columbia the ability to access on a real time basis every possible opportunity that is related to the Olympics," said Les.
The site’s database will have procurement opportunities for all Vancouver Organizing Committee contracts as well as Olympic related projects including the Highway 99 improvement project and the Richmond-Airport-Vancouver rapid transit project.
It is also hoped that major sponsors such as Bell will also list their procurement contracts on the site.
As well, Les said the site would list opportunities for other Olympics such as the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing and the 2012 Games host.
The idea, said Les, is that the site will link B.C. companies to Olympic opportunities before and after the 2010 Games.
"The website, we hope, will be in use well beyond the 2010 Olympics," he said. "It will in fact itself become a legacy of the Olympics."
The new site also provides businesses with a one-stop resource centre providing information on topics such as procedures and evaluation, vendor qualification criteria, sponsorship, merchandising and the use of logos.
