Companies backed by Investissement Québec (IQ) have never exported as much as in fiscal year 2022-2023, the government company said Friday morning.

For the fiscal year ended March 31, 2023, they had revenue outside of the province of US$3.1 billion (B$), compared to US$1.01 billion in 2018-2019. Almost 60% of this revenue was generated in the United States.

With the support of Quebec overseas delegations and other partners, IQ teams have accompanied 1,681 companies looking to expand their markets outside of Quebec.

“For the third consecutive year, Investissement Québec’s performance in promoting Quebec internationally has been unparalleled,” said Guy LeBlanc, IQ’s President and CEO, in a press release.

IQ increasingly relies on networking activities and face-to-face meetings between local and foreign companies to boost Quebec’s exports. In the last financial year, 7,621 business meetings took place between Quebec entrepreneurs and foreign buyers or business partners.

“The support that our experts provide to exporters has real added value: from assessing export potential, arranging meetings with buyers, to preparing, assisting and identifying business opportunities and the related support Investissement Québec International covers its partners all phases of an internationalization process and our companies benefit from it,” said Marie-Ève ​​​​​​Jean, Vice President of IQ Exports.

Unprecedented attraction

Efforts to attract foreign investment to Quebec have also reached new heights. Seeking foreign direct investment and supporting foreign affiliates on Quebec soil has resulted in investments of US$6.03 billion spread across 125 projects. That’s almost triple the $2.3 billion for fiscal 2018-2019.

For the 2022–2023 period, $3.8 billion of the total was accounted for by reinvestments by foreign actors already based in the province.

The top detractors were the information technology ($1.734 billion) and materials chemicals ($1.750 billion) sectors. European companies invested the most, representing 46% of foreign investors, versus 42% from America and 12% from Asia.