A local foreign exchange business is the latest to join the growing list of local and international companies taking advantage of B.C.’s International Business Activity (IBA) program.
The Vancouver Bullion and Currency Exchange (VBCE) recently joined the International Financial Centre of B.C., a non-profit society established in 1986 to promote international business in B.C. through the International Business Activity Act.
Membership is one requirement to get the tax incentives associated with the IBA program, which is available for a growing range of international business activities ranging from foreign investment management and film distribution to life-science and green-tech patents and carbon credit trading.
Kevin Ma, VBCE’s vice-president of sales, said the local provider of consumer and business foreign exchange services plans to use the tax credits from the program to expand its business and open new branches in the province. It has three offices, one in Richmond and another at Broadway and Granville, in addition to its head office in downtown Vancouver.
The process to join was not particularly onerous, Ma said, noting it took about six months to get officially registered, after hearing about the program for the first time from friends in the banking industry.
Business in Vancouver last wrote about the IBA program in June (See “Government incentives strengthen B.C.’s gateway status, for now,” - issue 1078; June 22-28).