EXFO joins effort to ensure Canada gets its share of $5 trillion high-tech pie
QUEBEC CITY, CANADA, November 6, 2014 — EXFO Inc. (NASDAQ: EXFO) (TSX: EXF) has joined others in Canada’s telecommunications industry to make sure this country maintains its position as a world leader in next generation network technologies.
The Centre of Excellence in Next Generation Networks (CENGN) was officially launched today in Ottawa. It brings together the entire industry supply chain—leading multinationals; scores of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs); start-ups; service providers; research scientists and academics.
CENGN provides an essential link between fundamental research and the commercialization efforts needed to get communications products to market before the competition. CENGN will foster “co-opetition” between member organizations which are responsible for 90 per cent of Canada’s telecommunications R&D.
“EXFO is proud to be a founding member of CENGN. This provides us a great platform to work collaboratively with other CENGN participants to drive innovation and deliver highly differentiated solutions for the communications industry,” said Germain Lamonde, Founder Chairman and CEO at EXFO.
With its headquarters in the Kanata Research Park in west-end Ottawa, CENGN will have satellite offices across Canada and it will partner with CANARIE—Canada’s Advanced Research and Innovation Network—to connect with researchers right across the country. The centre will also be linked to regional innovation centres to ensure start-ups get the business support they need in order to grow.
The centre will provide testing facilities, business support, mentoring and help in finding financing, while promoting the development of cloud-based applications in areas such as healthcare, energy, education, financial services and the environment.
“The CENGN partnership creates a unique environment and a one-of-a-kind facility that will spawn new technologies, new services, new skills, new businesses, new jobs and new international investment,” says Ritch Dusome CENGN executive director.
