A new Vancouver-based global network has been established to connect about 25 million businesses worldwide and help small and medium-sized companies access increasingly important Asian Pacific markets.

"We are one of the few organizations which can think global and act local," said Georges Fischer, chairman of the World Chambers Network (WCN) consortium.

The Paris-based organization last week unveiled the global enterprise innovations and commerce centre (GEICC) - part of a global electronic connecting system - at a news conference at the Vancouver Art Gallery.

Joined by chamber representatives from around the world, Fischer said it makes sense to base the venture in Vancouver as the emerging markets of China, India and Pakistan become key business targets.

B.C. Chamber of Commerce president John Winter says initiative makes “good sense.”

The network will provide practical online tools for trade and customer service.

The centre will be headquartered at Simon Fraser University, the venture's primary academic partner, which will carry out applied research and business development.

Milton Wong, chairman of HSBC Asset Management Ltd. and chancellor at the university, noted that Vancouver's cultural diversity, academic institutions and a recognized high-tech workforce made the city a good choice for the GEICC.

"Vancouver is a magnet for global leaders to come into this area," he said.

The university's students will benefit by developing their skills and knowledge to operate in a world economy through research into critical issues involving small and medium-sized businesses, said Wong.

"I want to congratulate the ICC for their vision in recognizing this new reality and identifying the need to facilitate borderless e-commerce," said Wong, noting that online bill payments now outnumber payments by cheque.

B.C. Chamber of Commerce president John Winter praised the new initiative.

"Focusing on emerging markets, focusing on trade and commerce opportunities for businesses in Canada through British Columbia makes so much good sense," he said.

"Canada as a trading nation, and British Columbia as an economy that is lagging behind in terms of trade opportunities - and really ought not to be - has been Canada's gateway to the Asia Pacific," Winter said.

Winter said he intends to inform representatives from the province's 130 chambers that the GEICC gives them the tools to advance their businesses both across the street and around the world.

"We deal in paper transactions generally, and now we're going to be doing them around the world, electronically."

Key to the initiative's success is the trust relationship that exists between businesses and their local chamber organizations, Winter noted.

"Chambers of commerce can do and say things - perhaps because of their cachet, because of their worldwide reputation - that maybe other organizations can't do."

The GEICC program will include a verification tool to assure businesses and consumers that they are dealing online with reputable companies.

Winter said small and medium-sized firms will benefit the most from the ability to more effectively do business globally.

"If you can establish more efficient and effective ways of doing business, you can reduce costs in doing business and add value to a transaction," he said.

The technology for the backbone systems of the GEICC, which will connect and service chambers and their members around the world, will be managed in Vancouver, where it was developed by Storm Computing Systems.

Storm Computing founder Joachim Knauf, director for the WCN's North American affairs, said he has worked with the agency for seven years to develop this project.

Features including complex multilingual-capable data and directories, as well as cohesive standards across all regions, will produce a more level playing field, said Knauf. This, in turn, will make global markets more accessible to small and mid-sized businesses, he said.

"It means that instead of talking about one day, in the distant future, perhaps being a hub or a trade route to the Pacific Rim or connecting Europe with the Americas and the Pacific Rim, we have arrived," said Knauf.

(Jan Mansfield can be reached at jan@businessedge.ca)