Toronto’s growth spurt isn’t over just yet. While we’ve built or are building more super-tall skyscrapers (200 metres or higher) over the past three years than in all previous years combined, that’s nothing compared to what could be coming: There are a grand total of 16 buildings taller than 200 metres currently planned. Here’s how they’d measure up on our skyline. Read Article

The federal government is soliciting interest from private parties that want to team up with Ottawa on its initiative to boost venture capital investments. After the government first announced it would set aside $400-million to invest in Canadian startups as part of the 2012 federal budget, there were almost no developments for a year. This month, however, Ottawa finally opened up submissions for potential partners and it also relayed some more information on how the initiative will function. Read Article

“The basic principal with the Chinese is that you need to be on good terms with China,” said Cheung. “China considers pandas a national treasure. (They) only go to the countries where they consider they have a good relationship.” Read Article

University of Toronto president David Naylor walked into Mississauga council at 9 a.m. Wednesday. An hour later, he left with a $10-million commitment to help build an innovation complex on the Mississauga campus. The centre will cost $70 million to $100 million and, surprisingly, ground will be broken next week at the U of T Erindale site. Read Article

Ontario Government Boosting Support for Entrepreneurs, Creating Jobs: Ontario is making it easier for people to start and grow successful businesses by streamlining and improving its business support services. The new Ontario Network of Entrepreneurs is a one-stop shop for anyone involved in planning, launching or building a company -- whether it's a main street retailer, a high-tech start-up, or a growing manufacture Read Article

The Federal Communications Commission said it has reached several spectrum-sharing arrangements with Canada. The commission and its Canadian counterpart, Industry Canada, have agreed through an exchange of letters, on 10 interim spectrum-sharing arrangements covering operations in their common border area. These arrangements are expected to aid in the deployment of mobile broadband and improve public safety communications. Read Article

Canadian manufacturers are expecting an overall increase in domestic sales of about 5.0 per cent over the next three years. U.S. sales are showing signs of growing about 8.0 per cent in that period, and non-U.S. export sales perhaps 6.0 per cent. Following a winter “blahs” period, RBC's Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) for manufacturing, known as an early trend indicator or “snapshot” of the sector, finished its February results with a 2.4-per cent boost (to 51.7). It was a five-month high for manufacturing in Canada, though still below the index's 12-month average of 53.6. Read Article

Canada’s federal government has made the call for the world’s best and brightest entrepreneurs and this week they started advertising it in a big way. “Innovation and entrepreneurship are essential drivers of the Canadian economy,” said Kenney. “That is why we are actively recruiting foreign entrepreneurs—those who can build companies here in Canada that will create new jobs, spur economic growth and compete on a global scale—with our new start-up visa.” Now Canada is advertising on a billboard on the side of Highway 101, which connects San Francisco and Silicon Valley. Read Article

Three Canadian business schools scored solidly in the Financial Times ranking of Top-50 executive education programs in the world, released this week, but bragging rights go to the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management for topping the global chart in several sub-categories of management training. The annual FT survey, based on client responses and data from individual schools, ranked Rotman first in the world for the quality of faculty teaching and for the acquisition of new skills by participants (and third in meeting their personal and professional expectations) in so-called open enrolment courses that cover specific topics such as leadership. Read Article

Bloomberg today announced it will convene political and business leaders in Toronto to discuss Canada’s economic outlook, new central bank leadership and opportunities across key industries at the Bloomberg Canada Economic Summit on Tuesday, May 21, 2013. During the one-day Summit, held at the TIFF Bell Lightbox, attendees will hear from speakers on panels addressing economic and political hot topics, including the Bank of Canada’s flexibility in providing more fiscal stimulus and meeting inflation goals, the politics and investment prospects around the country’s oil sands, and risks to Canada’s banks from cooling loan growth and unpaid mortgages, as the housing market softens. Read Article

In July, the New York Times ran a travel story that said "there's something happening in Toronto. "Restaurants seem to open every week" and "immigrant neighbourhoods still feel linguistically, gastronomically, gloriously, distinct," the story asserted. In October, Air Canada's enRoute magazine's annual Top 10 list of the best new Canadian restaurants included an unprecedented six from just one city: Toronto. "It's the year of Toronto ... the city's dining scene is on fire," the magazine said. Last month, when Toronto Life magazine issued its Top 10 list of new Toronto restaurants, it said that an astounding 1,308 restaurants opened in Toronto in 2012 - more than triple the number that opened during two years before. Read Article

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird today signalled Canada’s intent to deepen trade and investment with Ghana—one of the world’s fastest-growing economies. Baird and his Ghanaian counterpart, Hanna Tetteh, agreed that finalizing a foreign investment promotion and protection agreement is a matter of priority in relations between the two countries. “Our government is committed to increasing trade and diversifying our engagement with fast-growth countries like Ghana,” said Baird. “Ghana is very much a symbol of the new Africa—one in which aid recipients are becoming important trading partners, and political stability allows for economic dynamism.” Read Article

New Office offers Microsoft Dynamic-Based Solutions and Services to Growing Canadian Client Base. Hitachi Solutions America, Ltd., a leading provider of global industry solutions and services based on Microsoft Dynamics AX and Microsoft Dynamics CRM, today announced the establishment of a new business subsidiary in Canada. The expansion will help the award-winning Microsoft global systems integrator better meet the needs of multi-national corporations and its growing Canadian client base, support the company’s strategic investment in the oil and gas sector and Financial Services industries, and further boost its global market footprint. Read Article

Financial institutions worldwide, still recovering from the global market meltdown, are introducing a new generation of sophisticated self-serve technologies from Ontario's Phoenix Interactive to help them win new customers. The tech pioneer's advanced, automated teller machine (ATM) software represents the convergence of leading-edge ideas from two fields in which Ontario has recognized expertise: information technology and financial services. Ontario has one of North America's largest concentrations of innovative companies in the information and communications technology industry. Roughly 18,000 firms generate more than $28 billion in annual revenues. The industry includes market leaders in software design, interactive programming, wireless, digital imaging, e-security, network infrastructure and other specializations. It includes global firms that started in Ontario such as BlackBerry, Open Text, Constellation Software, Certicom and Side Effects as well as foreign multinationals ranging from Microsoft to IBM and Infosys. Read Article

Keeping the province on the cutting edge of research and innovation, the Ontario government will provide $100 million over five years to support patient-focused neuroscience research. Ontario’s support will help the Ontario Brain Institute expand its research into the areas of neurodegeneration, such as Alzheimer's disease, and depression, and continue its important research on cerebral palsy, autism and epilepsy. Ontario’s life sciences sector is the second largest in North America. Over 1,100 companies comprise the life sciences sector in Ontario, including GE Healthcare, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, Novocol, Roche and Teva. Read Article

The MaRS Cleantech Fund is pleased to announce the completion of a venture deal with Toronto energy storage firm Hydrostor. Hydrostor's technology converts surplus electrical energy to underwater compressed air and stores it for use at peak times. "Our fund targets technologies that change the energy game, and low-cost storage is at the top of our list," says Tom Rand, co-managing director of the MaRS Cleantech Fund. "This is grid-scale technology, meaning that it has the ability to store energy on a level that will significantly impact our electricity grid. If you combine Hydrostor's technology with solar, or wind, you get cost-competitive base-load renewable power that will disrupt global energy markets." Read Article

A Statistics Canada report released today, titled Foreign Direct Investment 2012, underlines why the market2world team spends a lot of time with our clients thinking about how our nation can tell a better story to attract more Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). In the past few months we've publicized a 10-city Consider Canada City Alliance investment and trade mission to China, an Ontario Clean Technology Alliance mission to Germany, an Ontario Technology Corridor mission to Brazil, and an Ontario Food Cluster mission to France. Read Article

Finding a buyer is no longer a key exit strategy for Canadian startup CEOs, according to PwC’s Report on Emerging Canadian Technology Companies: A CEO Perspective. Results from the 10th annual report, released today, show that only 44% of the surveyed companies are looking towards a merger or an acquisition to exit the market, a stark contrast to the 76% who were eyeing this route just a year ago. Just 21% anticipate a partial sale of the company, while 30% have no plans to exit at all, showing that the trend is moving towards building the business and bringing it to the next growth stage. And, the survey also suggests that CEOs are staying put for good reason-- more than one-third (36%) of respondents reported having reached profitability, while another 28% expect to get there within one year, and another 26% within two years. Read Article