OTTAWA - Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper left here on Monday for an official visit to China in a bid to enhance the Sino-Canadian strategic partnership.
To demonstrate the importance of his second visit to China since he took office in 2006, Harper is bringing a large delegation of Ministers and Members of Parliament, including Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, International Trade Minister Ed Fast, Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver, Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz and Minister of State for Seniors Alice Wong.
Also travelling is a large business delegation with representatives from the energy, transport, education, and many other sectors on the visit which will take them to Beijing, Guangzhou and Chongqing from February 7-11.
Harper said in an interview with Xinhua on Friday that Canada is looking for new markets for its goods and services, and China and the entire Asia-Pacific region are an area of tremendous opportunity.
"We hope to expand on our strategic partnership with China, and in particular we hope to deepen the economic and trade ties between our two countries," he said.
Harper stressed that like China, Canada is also a Pacific nation with a growing economy and strong potential, so it makes sense for China and Canada to be fully engaged with each other.
"The upcoming visit to China represents an excellent opportunity to strengthen the economic and trade ties between our two countries. As I said, I look forward to making progress," he added.
Harper paid his first visit to China in December 2009, which took him to Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong and led to a return visit by the Chinese President Hu Jintao in June 2010.
Canada's official statistics shows that China is Canada's second largest individual trading partner after the United States, and bilateral trade is expanding rapidly.
Since 2005, two-way merchandise trade with China has grown by almost 60 percent, and has held strong throughout the global economic crisis. Between 2005 and 2010, Canadian merchandise exports to China grew by some 83 percent, from 7.2 billion to 13.2 billion Canadian dollars.
In 2010, the bilateral trade volume reached 57.8 billion Canadian dollars, accounting for 7.2 percent of Canada's trade and representing a 13.7 percent increase over 2009.
Foreign direct investment between Canada and China continues to increase dramatically, particularly in the resource and financial services sectors, reaching almost 19 billion Canadian dollars in 2010.
