Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff will travel to China at the beginning of the summer for a working visit, from July 3 to July 8, where he will meet with Chinese officials and Canadian businesspeople operating in China.
“The key to jobs and our future prosperity will be building global networks with the new giants of the world, like China,” said Mr. Ignatieff. “Stephen Harper spent four years neglecting Canada’s relationship with China. I want to show Canadians – long before the next election – that a Liberal government will be serious and aggressive about re-establishing a vital Canadian presence in China and internationally.”
Mr. Ignatieff will visit Beijing and Shanghai on the trip. He will be joined by Liberal International Trade Critic Scott Brison and Vancouver MP Ujjal Dosanjh.
“China represents the greatest growth opportunity in the world,” said Mr. Brison. “Strong leadership from the federal government in building partnerships within China would help businesses across Canada penetrate the Chinese market and create significant job opportunities in our country.”
“Today’s innovative entrepreneurs will need to become as familiar with China as their predecessors were with the United States,” said Mr. Dosanjh. “Likewise, our government must develop an understanding of China’s needs, trends, diverse regions, people, customs, history, culture, niche markets, and of course its language.”
Between 1990 and 2004, China’s GDP grew at an average rate of 10 percent a year; no other country came close to matching that growth. China is expected to become the world’s second largest economy this year, vaulting past Japan.
Meanwhile, Canada represents only a 1.15 percent share of the huge Chinese market, and the proportion of Chinese citizens seeing Canada as a positive influence in the world has fallen from 75 percent to 54 percent in the last year, according to a poll by GlobeScan and the BBC World Service.
“Canada enjoys special advantages in our relations with China – but the Harper government has failed to capitalize on them,” said Mr. Ignatieff. “Canada was one of the first countries in the industrialized world to diplomatically recognize China. Over one million Canadians speak Chinese as their mother tongue – a number that will only grow. We must harness these advantages to deepen the relationship between our countries if Canada is to prosper.”
More details about Mr. Ignatieff’s itinerary in China will be made available in the coming weeks.
