Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty is traveling in China this week with representatives of 30 companies from the province’s growing environmental sector. McGuinty hopes to profit from China’s plans to spend $175 billion on green projects between 2006 and 2010.
'It gives us the opportunity to meet as many people as possible,' says Corey Diamond, president of Summerhill Group of Toronto during an interview with Canwest News Service. 'The way they are doing it is kind of like speed dating. That’s what they are calling it.'
So far, at least six China-Ontario agreements have been signed. One involves Canadian Windfields Solar & Renewable Energy Corporation. The Toronto-based company will build and operate a demonstration plant with a Chinese company called Wuhan Liren. Wuhan Liren will also invest in an Ontario manufacturing plant that will build and support its biomass power generation systems.
Instead of traditional renewable energy sources such as solar and wind, the power plant will use agricultural and forestry waste that produce virtually no emissions. The new biomass power generation plant will be the first of its kind in North America.
A second deal involves Tempo International Group that will create 175 full-time jobs to Ontario’s auto parts sector. A third was signed between Canada Menergy Corporation and Hexi New Town of Nanjing City to provide geothermal systems, technology and consulting services. Ontario’s two-way trade with China more than doubled between 2003 and 2007, reaching $21 billion last year. Ontario currently has 2,600 environmental technology companies.
Ontario and Jiangsu Province signed an agreement to strengthen cooperation on environmental protection and management and a framework on university student exchanges.
'The agreements signed today are significant. It’s just the start of what Ontario and China can do together,' said Premier Dalton McGuinty. 'We’ll continue to strengthen our social and economic ties, to generate investment and create jobs for Ontario families.'
The director of Shanghai’s Environmental Protection Bureau, Sun Jian, took part in one of the signing ceremonies. The Premier then spoke at a dinner to showcase Ontario’s environmental technology companies in front of over 200 people at the Shanghai Museum.
The Chinese government’s 11th Five Year Plan sets an ambitious goal to make the country a world leader in green technologies and sustainable development within the next few years.
According to Canwest News Service, Dalton McGuinty travels to Beijing this weekend to join the premiers of Quebec, New Brunswick, Manitoba and Prince Edward Island, who will also be in the capital leading business delegations. All want to promote Canada in the world’s most populous nation to woo investors and expand market share.
Sino-Canada relations have been frosty since Prime Minister Stephen Harper was elected in 2006. His official meeting with the Dalai lama last spring angered Beijing. Relations can only be fixed, according to Canwest News Service, by deft diplomacy at the highest levels.
Dalton McGuinty’s first trade mission to China took place in November 2005. The trip included stops in Beijing, Shanghai, Suzhou, Nanjing and Hong Kong.
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