Encouraging foreigners

One of the marked differences between Kenora and London… or any other major metropolis is the distinct shortage of foreign business owners.  Almost everywhere you go in England you’ll find either a Chinese takeaway or an Indian corner shop.  Kenora has two Chinese restuarants – my personal favourite being Hings – but there’s no Sikhs or Hindus running cornershops.

A while back when I worked at Overdrive Design Labs I was speaking to Jennifer Rasmussen who is Kenora’s economic development officer… I mentioned to her that in England hundreds of thousands of Indians migrated to England and have successfully opened corner shop businesses and many other types of businesses that have flourished.  I said to her that Kenora ought to be targeting Indians from the U.K and India to come to Kenora and start a business.  Kenora managed to attract two doctors to move here and set up shop… so why not business owners?

It’s due to their culture and the way many Indian parents constantly pressure their children and strive for them to be successful that’s allowed Indian business owners to flourish.   For instance, the seventh and eighth richest people on the planet are Mukesh Ambani, and Lakshmi Mittal.  You can further see the success of many Sikh’s by peeking at SikhTruth.com – a list of highly successful sikhs in whatever they do.

Of course I’m not expecting any billionaires to move to Kenora… but somebody needs to wake up and try and to exploit the untapped resource of foreign business owners.  It could only help Kenora.