Minister Shawn Skinner

Innovation, Trade and Rural Development Minister Shawn Skinner is hoping an international conference will increase the province's exports.

St. John's will host the South Eastern United States/Canadian Provinces (SUES/CP) conference between July 26 and 28.

Premiers, governors, government officials and business and industry leaders from Alabama, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi and Tennessee, as well as the seven provinces from Manitoba east will be in town.

Last year's inaugural conference brought more than 300 delegates to Savannah, Ga.

Skinner is expecting about the same number of people to come to the province this year.

"This is all about export and all about increasing the awareness of the province and what the province has to offer in terms of technical skills, knowledge, manufacturing reso-urces and those kinds of things," he says.

"Exports acc-ount for about one in three jobs in our province, so the more we can increase our export level the more, ultimately, we'll be increasing our employment levels."

With the global recession, Skinner says businesses in the province are looking for new markets where they can send their products.

Gretchen Corbin is the division director of international operations with Georgia's Department of Economic Development. She expects between 15 and 25 delegates from Georgia alone to be in St. John's.

Corbin says last year's conference, held in her state, was a huge success.

"The fact that you had so many Canadian provinces and so many South Eastern States that really wanted to work together, learn from one another and make partnerships, that's really what stands out in my mind," she says.

Corbin doesn't think the recession will have much impact on this year's conference. She says while business people are evaluating every dollar they spend to make sure things like trade missions are worthwhile, businesses are looking for new opportunities right now to grow their profit margins.

"Anytime Georgia businesses go as delegates to a conference, they are looking for opportunities," she says.

"With your location, we have the opportunity to learn a lot about tourism from you," Corbin gives as an example.

Corbin also credits the province with selling Newfoundland and Lab-rador to last year's delegates as the location for this year's conference.

"At the end, Newfoundland and Labrador provided a wonderful luncheon to introduce all the SUES-Canada delegates to Newfoundland and Labrador."

She says the province's delegates highlighted local industries and tourism and served the province's cuisine prepared by a chef from New-foundland and Labrador.

And Corbin says the province has continued to promote the conference since then.

"Because of their great organization, we're seeing a lot of good, early, interest from our Georgia businesses and we are very much looking forward to being there," Corbin says.

Skinner was also promoting the conference in Ottawa this week when he met with some of his counterparts from other provinces.

He says the conference opens trade, not only with the South Eastern United States, but the other province as well.

dbartlett@thetelegram.com