The B.C. government has stepped up its efforts to attract Chinese investment in multiple sectors in the province. The Minister of International Trade Teresa Wat met top executives of four major Chinese companies in two months last year, according to documents obtained through Access to Information request.
Baidu Inc., Tianjin Huabei, Tsinghua Tongfang and Poly Culture are the four companies that were invited to discuss investment opportunities in the bilateral meetings held in July and Aug. 2014.
All the four companies are market leaders in different industries in China ranging from information technology, mineral resources, art auction to film and television production and eyeing at expanding their operation in North America.
Jason Si, a senior manager at the Ministry of International Trade said the B.C. government is very keen to have diversified investment in the province and has targeted Asian companies for that.
“It’s a part of our long term economic relations development plan. Last year we had many government to government, government to business and business to business meetings and discussions to ensure that business leaders in different sectors come and invest in B.C.”.
International Trade and Intergovernmental Relations officer Kirsten Youngs said the government is encouraging diverse investment in the province as it has a number of direct and indirect benefits, including job creation, increased trade, and economic growth.
The B.C. government launched a new project titled HQ Vancouver to lure Asian companies to move their head offices to the city on Feb. 13, 2015.
The $6.5 million project is jointly funded by the B.C. government, the Business Council of British Columbia (BCBC) and the federal government’s Western Economic Diversification program.
“The project is part of Minister Teresa Wat’s mandate and is focused on promoting B.C.’s advantages as Canada’s Gateway to Asia,” Youngs said.
The initiative aims to attract five international head offices to B.C. by 2020. It has also set a target of attracting an investment amounting $100 million and creating 500 new jobs in the province.
Youngs said this project will help generate industry clusters that will attract other businesses within supply chain to the area.
At present nearly 1,000 international companies have operations in B.C., including the Bank of China and the Agricultural Bank of China – two of the world’s 10 most-profitable banks.
“These offices generate a number of direct economic benefits, including the creation of local, well-paying jobs and increased contribution to the tax base. They also generate indirect business services, ranging from accounting and legal to advertising services and real estate leasing,” Youngs added.
Wei Liu is the director of the B.C. chapter of Canada China Business Council (CCBC), a bilateral trade organization for businesses in Canada and China. He said that for many years Chinese companies were mostly engaged in real estate business in B.C. but the trend has started to shift in recent years and more and more investors from Mainland China are buying small and medium sized enterprises these days.
He also said many Chinese companies are showing their interest in investing in IT, entertainment and energy sectors as they find many advantages like location for corporate investment, outstanding telecommunications infrastructure, clean and competitive energy, and low tax rate in B.C.
“The province’s ports are closer to Asia than anywhere else in North America and B.C. has a competitive business environment, a skilled and diverse workforce, and a quality of life,” he said.
“The government wants investment and they want business. It’s a win-win situation,” he added.
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