Global Insight︱Canadian business people: The Shenzhen APEC meeting is an excellent opportunity to implement the consensus reached by high-level leaders of Canada and China
From November 18th to 19th, the 33rd Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders’ Informal Meeting will be held in Shenzhen. The theme of this meeting is "Building an Asia-Pacific Community and Promoting Common Prosperity". This is also the third time that China has served as the host of APEC.
Canada and China are both important members of APEC. In January this year, Canadian Prime Minister Carney paid an official visit to China. During the visit, the leaders of the two countries reached important consensus on promoting the construction of a new strategic partnership between China and Canada and issued a joint statement.
Recently, David Perez-Des Rosiers, chief representative of the Beijing Representative Office of the Canada-China Business Council (CCBC), said in an exclusive interview with the "Global Insight" column of China Global Information that the Shenzhen APEC meeting will provide an important platform for Canadian companies to deepen foreign economic and trade cooperation.
David Pei:
For us, the APEC meeting is a good opportunity for Canadian companies to connect with business partners and establish connections with important stakeholders - whether they are government representatives, business people, think tank experts, or all APEC meeting attendees.
Earlier this year, during Canadian Prime Minister Carney's visit to China, Canada and China agreed to promote a new strategic partnership. This APEC meeting will be an excellent opportunity to promote the implementation of relevant results. During Prime Minister Carney's visit to China, the two sides also signed the "China-Canada Economic and Trade Cooperation Roadmap" and set ambitious goals. The Shenzhen APEC meeting also provided an opportunity for exchanges around this roadmap.
We believe that with the help of such an important platform as APEC, we can continue to carry out dialogue on Canada-China bilateral economic, trade and commercial relations at a broader level.
The Canada-China Business Council will also participate in activities related to the Shenzhen APEC Conference to help the Canadian business community connect with Chinese companies, explore new opportunities for bilateral trade and investment, and promote the smooth implementation of existing cooperation.
Currently, global protectionism is on the rise, uncertainty in the world economy continues to rise, and industrial and supply chains are under pressure. This has brought challenges to the foreign trade of many economies, including China and Canada. In David Pei's view, the multilateral platform represented by APEC provides an important opportunity for all parties to carry out bilateral economic and trade cooperation. Countries can use this to explore cooperation opportunities, jointly respond to external risks, maintain multilateralism, and enhance the resilience of their economic cooperation at different levels.
David Pei:
Canada and China are both advocates of multilateralism. Canada is working hard to promote trade diversification, and we believe that China is a very important partner in this process. The recent interactions and consensus reached between the two countries have created more communication opportunities for the Canada-China Business Council and companies from both sides, and also created a more stable and predictable environment, which is generally welcomed by our member companies.
We believe that through bilateral communication, the two sides can deeply explore new paths for economic cooperation, properly address their respective concerns in key areas such as energy, agricultural food, consumer goods, and financial services, and achieve common development.
The "China-Canada Economic and Trade Cooperation Roadmap" reached during Prime Minister Carney's visit to China systematically planned bilateral cooperation in eight fields including energy, agriculture and food, advanced manufacturing, economic and financial cooperation, covering cooperation in traditional fields and new fields.
In David Pei’s view, Canada-China economic and trade cooperation tracks are rich and highly complementary. He specifically mentioned that the two countries have core complementary advantages and huge cooperation potential in the field of clean technology, which can help promote the global green and low-carbon transformation.
David Pei:
Canada has cutting-edge technology in the field of clean technology and has a large number of small and medium-sized scientific and technological innovation companies; China has a strong industrial foundation and has a number of leading companies that are deeply involved in the development of clean technology. Both countries have set ambitious emission reduction targets, so we believe that both sides are well-positioned to promote bilateral cooperation in the field of clean technology.
The Canada-China Business Council will organize a Canadian clean technology delegation to visit China for the first time this year, with the itinerary including Guangdong, Shanghai and Beijing. We are very much looking forward to this delegation’s visit and hope to help Canadian companies explore new opportunities for cooperation in China.
In the exclusive interview, David Pei also said that he was deeply impressed by Shenzhen, the host city of this year's APEC meeting, and looked forward to the fruitful results of the Shenzhen APEC meeting.
David Pei:
I have been to Shenzhen many times. The city is growing at an extremely fast pace and is full of innovative energy. So, I am very excited to go to Shenzhen again. For some of our member companies, this APEC trip is their first visit to Shenzhen; for others, it is a good opportunity to return to Shenzhen and have in-depth exchanges and learning with Chinese business people.
