Business View Magazine Apr-2023

121 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 10, ISSUE 4 ASSOC I AT ION OF BR I T I SH COLUMB I A MAR INE INDUSTR I ES ABCMI membership provides just that – an emphasis on supporting industry-specific needs. Membership confers benefits such as positive influence on public policy, new business opportunities, reduced-cost access to international marketing and trade shows, preferential access to senior policymakers, and visibility into future infrastructure and procurement opportunities. Members are encouraged to pool their collective sector-wide knowledge on challenging issues which includes consolidation of training demand to reduce delivery costs. Rueben works to facilitate access to government funding for industry initiatives, developing relationships with federal and provincial departments. One benefit of strengthening these relationships is access to government grants that can further spark post-COVID economic activity. Access to these grants can be difficult to attain otherwise. Those grants can also help pay for co-op student wages working in the industrial marine sector or supporting innovation design competitions. “It can be tough to find the funds for some programs in our industry so that can be a big part of what we do,” Rueben says. Among the main objectives that ABCMI emphasizes with members are workforce, supply chain, and member strategies. More specifically: ABCMI champions relationships and strategies