Off to China
By 250 News
Wednesday, September 01, 2010 04:39 PM
Team Northern B.C. members Kathy Scouten, Tim McEwan, Mike Bernier and Dan Rogers
Prince George, B.C.- The delegation is set to head to China. Initiatives Prince George, The City of Prince George, the Prince George airport, City of Dawson Creek, the Prince Rupert Port Authority
“The purpose of the trip for Prince George is to initiate the interest in twinning with Jiangmen and to invite them to consider coming back to Prince George” says Mayor Dan Rogers. “This opportunity for the City of Prince George, while taking advantage of the funding provided by the Province, it really builds on our past initiatives to build on the relationships already established in various sectors. It is also a new area for us in developing a relationship with a civic government.”
He says a positive outcome would be for the Jiangmen reps to agree to come to Prince George next spring to build a twinning relationship.
The idea of twinning with Jiangmen has been on the radar for more than a year. Mayor Rogers says in 2009, Council decided not to pursue the idea for a couple of reasons. First, the economy was such that it wasn't viewed as a wise move to make when dollars were very tight, secondly, there wasn't enough time to make the necessary arrangements before the window of opportunity for provincial funding would close. The Province extended the deadline, and the economy improved, allowing Prince George to re-visit the idea.
This kind of twinning is not new, as Vancouver already has a twinning relationship with another Chinese City. The mayor says while Jiangmen is a city of 3.5 million people, it has much in common with Prince George it has a similar economic base of resources some industrial and some manufacturing.
The mayor says there are four main goals for the trip:
- Development of investment opportunities,
- tourism
- The opportunity to explore the prospect of having more foreign students to come to UNBC and College of New Caledonia.
UNBC President, Dr. George Iwama will be part of the delegation. "If you can attract just 4 students to come here, then the trip will have paid for itself" says Mayor Rogers who adds while it easy to focus on the monetary gain from a twinning, there is also a benefit of being recognized as a global city with a role to play inglobal issues. "That could be something like sharing information on reducing carbon footprints" adds Mayor Rogers.
- Development of research partnerships between the two cities.
For Initiatives Prince George, this is the second Team Northern B.C. trip to China this year, as the team was there in June.
The Mayor and the City Manager along with councillors Don Basserman and Garth Frizzell will attend the world expo in Shanghai where there are more than 190 countries taking part.
Then the delegation splits with the IPG contingent heading to the city of Xiamen for a Chinese Business and Trade show. The City of Prince George delegation will head to Jiangmen and the two groups meet up again in Shanghai before heading home.
IPG will focus on promotion of forestry, education, mining, oil and gas, tourism , education and agriculture. There are two business reps on this trip, one from a real estate firm, another from a manufacturing company.
“There are a number of business to business meetings already set” says IPG President Tim McEwan.
He adds that the opportunity to promote the Asia-Pacific corridor is enormous including the development of the airport industrial lands near the airport.
The twinning delegation costs are covered by a grant from the Province, while the balance of the delegation has delegates each paying a flat $7500 fee for the full cost of the trip.
“This is going to be the first trip for the city of Dawson Creek’ says Dawson Creek Mayor Mike Bernier, “We are looking at this trip for all of northern B.C. because anytime we can secure investment it is an economic benefit for all of the region.”
Some of the Team Northern B.C. members have already headed to China, with the rest heading out tomorrow morning.
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Posted by: RUEZ on September 1 2010 5:47 PM
Is this guy for real. Wonder what he has been smoking. All we manufacture is 2X4. Big deal. What sort of investment is he talking about. Have them buy up our pulp mills and let the profit leave our contry.
Cheers