Asia-Pacific Gateway - Private Members' Statement

May, 8 2006

Opening Remarks

"Ever since February last year when the throne speech announced that the government of British Columbia was establishing an Asia-Pacific gateway strategy, progress and many developments have been made towards the formulation of the strategy. As we know, the economies of Asia have grown continuously at unprecedented rates over the last few years. The demand for Canadian products, technologies and services has been intensifying.

As Canada's only Pacific province and with a long history of cultural, social and economic connections to the region, British Columbia has a vital role to play in leading the country's engagement with the Asia-Pacific. More and more, Canadians now recognize that British Columbia is in an enviably unique position to reap immense benefit from this new global reality developing in the Asia-Pacific as our government continues our efforts to focus on the opportunities.

Last June the Premier, for the first time in the history of this province, assigned a Minister Responsible for the Asia-Pacific Initiative and a parliamentary secretary for the Asia-Pacific Initiative to assist the minister. An advisory Asia-Pacific Trade Council was appointed last fall.

The council has established three market advisory groups — MAGs — namely, the Hong Kong–China MAG, the India MAG and the Japan MAG. Three more MAGs are being established in the coming months to reveal the status of B.C.'s current commercial relations with South Korea, Taiwan and the ASEAN states. These MAGs will prepare recommendations on how to increase trade engagements for British Columbia with these regions.

As we know, over the past 15 years the Asia-Pacific markets have been the fastest growing in the world. However, from 1995 to 2001 B.C.'s exports to Asia-Pacific decreased from 36 percent to 21 percent of our total exports. From 2001 to 2005 exports from B.C. to Asia-Pacific grew by 25 percent, to $8.1 billion dollars. Now 25 percent of the province's international exports goes to Asia-Pacific, and 64 percent goes to the United States.

As the economies of the Asia-Pacific regions like Hong Kong, China, India, Southeast Asia, South Korea and Taiwan continue to grow, B.C.'s two-way trade with the Asia-Pacific region has the potential to grow more rapidly than trade with other regions. The potential of this province in the Pacific has been strengthened in the last few years.

Five years ago our government set a bold course to take British Columbia into a golden decade. Since then, our province has had over 40 percent of regulations eliminated. Personal and corporate taxes have been lowered and provincial permit and licence requirements streamlined. Business tax burdens in British Columbia are now among the lowest in North America.

This kind of a competitive business environment has helped the province turn the economic corner. Now our province is leading Canada in job creation. Since December 2001 over 294,000 jobs have been created. In March our unemployment rate fell to 4.4 percent, the lowest ever recorded. Last month Standard and Poor's boosted B.C.'s credit rating to AA+.

The building up of our economic strength will open more doors, not only in Asia-Pacific. It also provides opportunities to lead the country in trade reforms. Just a couple of weeks ago members of the government cabinet held their annual joint cabinet meeting with Alberta, and a new agreement on trade, investment and labour mobility was announced. This groundbreaking initiative eliminates trade barriers between our province and Alberta. It creates a common economic market for 7.5 million people, which has a GDP 30 percent larger than Quebec's. With this agreement the new B.C.-Alberta market will be a more attractive place for Asia-Pacific investors. It is estimated by the Conference Board of Canada that this move will create $4.8 billion of benefit to British Columbians.

The B.C. Asia-Pacific Initiative not only creates more trade for this province, but it also benefits Canada as a whole. Goods and people from other parts of Canada going to Asia will take advantage of our infrastructure, of transportation and the richness of knowledge and human connections with Asia-Pacific.

Our diverse multicultural society; the exceptional quality of life; the upcoming 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games; the Pacific gateway transportation initiative; the expanding tourist sector, with the ADS being implemented with China; the acknowledged environmental technology sector; the robust international education system and the huge potential for natural resource development are all our advantages. But we have our challenges as well.

Hundreds of jurisdictions from around the world are competing for trade, tourism, students and investment. Many jurisdictions are much more aggressive than British Columbia. For example, although our export to China almost doubled from 1995 to 2005, our market share has dropped by about 40 percent. The drop of our market share in Japan is even more staggering — almost 60 percent. It is a clear indication that more has to be done to increase the market shares of this important Asia-Pacific region.

Maintaining the status quo, of course, will only ensure that British Columbia will be falling behind. While the government is consulting with the Asia-Pacific Trade Council on the details of intercontinental trade issues, some long-term goals and objectives have emerged.

If we are truly committed to a growing role as a gateway between our provinces in Canada, the United States and the Pacific regions, we must ensure a gateway structure with sufficient capacity to facilitate the seamless and reliable flow of people, goods, services and ideas. We must provide an open and competitive environment to attract and support business."

Response to the Official Opposistion

"I would like to thank the member for Vancouver-Hastings for his kind comments and his support for the initiative. We know that the Port of Prince Rupert is being expanded to increase the capacity for container traffic, so more containers will probably be directed to Prince Rupert instead of going to Vancouver. That will help the member's riding as well.

I think we have a unique opportunity to expand our capacity in the gateway structure, including the expansion of ports and airports as well as road and railroad networks and also inland terminals. We are also looking into, for example, helping Alberta to extend their pipelines into the coastal areas. We must expand those infrastructures in order to accommodate growth between British Columbia and the Asia-Pacific.

The government is also looking to the improvement of efficiency and productivity of our transportation infrastructures through optimization and implementation of new technologies and processes. The government must commit to also ensuring the reliability of the flow of goods and people in those facilities throughout our transportation networks.

We must also strengthen our cultural and personal linkages by bringing some kind of international perspective into our school system to ensure that the social, cultural and economic engagement between B.C. and the Asia-Pacific will be enhanced. We are going to promote economic and social advantages of our cultural diversities and foster people-to-people and institutional connections between B.C. and the Asia-Pacific to, also, ensure that Asia-Pacific immigrants and students have access to services for successful economic and social transition.

We also must provide an open and competitive environment by ensuring the availability of skilled labour required by the growing economy to improve B.C.'s competitive tax and regulatory position to foster increasing business with the Asia-Pacific. We have done some of that, but we must continue to do more.

We also must open markets and reduce barriers to trade and investment with the Asia-Pacific and implement critical policies and regulatory initiatives that contribute to the efficiency and competitiveness of B.C.'s transportation gateways."