Queen's Park wants to connect on LinkedIn to boost trade

The Ontario government is entering an agreement with LinkedIn to use data to find new trade opportunities.

Thestar.com
Feb. 16, 2018
By Robert Benzie

The Ontario government wants to connect on LinkedIn.

Queen's Park is entering a non-monetary agreement with the workplace app in a data-driven bid to boost trade for the province.

About one per cent of LinkedIn's worldwide users live in Ontario, so the company is mining that data - while protecting users' privacy - with hopes of improving the vast network.

International Trade Minister Michael Chan said LinkedIn's findings - in a report entitled "Understanding Trade Through International Connections" - suggest there are many opportunities for Ontario's small businesses, with 50 or fewer employees, to tap into international trade.

"Through Ontario's global trade strategy, our province has taken concrete steps to promote the global diversification of our goods and services," said Chan.

"Our partnership with LinkedIn not only builds on one of the strategy's main priorities of driving better intelligence for better results, it exemplifies how private and public sectors can work together with big data to better connect people to opportunities," the minister said.

"While Canada is a trading nation, this work is driven by our view that Ontario should be a leader in international trade."

LinkedIn's Kenly Walker said the company is "expanding our economic graph work to inform international trade policy."

"Based on the proprietary data of our nearly 5 million Ontario members, as well as that of our more than 546 million members globally, we were able to uncover new (and unexpected) insights on Ontario's workforce, its global connectivity, and the markets and business sectors that offer potential for expanding the province's trade relationships," said Walker.

"The partnership is an exciting and positive example of how private and public sectors can work together to leverage the benefits of data analytics to improve government decision-making and have broad reaching impact."

LinkedIn's research found that "compared to other provinces and states in Canada and the U.S., Ontario ranks the second highest in international connectivity."

"The province's international connectedness is also highly diverse. Ontario's workforce is connected to countries all around the world, representing a multitude of different economies," the report said.

"India, Middle Eastern countries, Brazil, Australia, Ireland and Nigeria show high connectivity with significant opportunities to grow trade value with Ontario and leverage connections to facilitate trade," it added.

"It demonstrates diversified trade potential in these markets for Ontario's businesses."

To preserve LinkedIn users' privacy, the firm stressed "all data examined was at an aggregate level and no access to member-level data was provided."

With mounting concerns about the future of NAFTA, the province is hoping to diversify Ontario's trade relationships, which already account for 36 per cent of the provincial gross domestic product.

"We know that our national and provincial trade is heavily tied to the United States, and that's not going to change anytime soon. We're not saying do less with the U.S., but rather, do more with other countries," said a government trade official speaking on background in order to discuss the LinkedIn initiative before its formal release Friday.

"We're using big data to bridge the gap between the skills and relationships necessary and future business deals, trade routes, and trade partnerships," the source said.