Minister Ida Chong's Mission Journal

Day 1 — November 19

I began this morning with a meeting with Susan Gregson, Canada’s Consul General in Shanghai, who shared with us an opportunity leading up to Shanghai 2010, the upcoming world expo. With the theme being “Better City – Better Life”, this fits well with our government’s initiatives to encourage local governments to adopt urban best practices, to be more energy efficient, to become carbon neutral, and to ensure our communities are age-friendly and accessible to persons with disabilities.

Clearly, this represents an unprecedented occasion to communicate with the world the progress local governments have made and share our success stories. Ms. Gregson also offered ideas on how “twinning relationships” can be further developed in industry or sector specific areas, such as tourism and environmental technologies. British Columbia’s natural splendour is an asset that foreign visitors like the Chinese, recognize and savour. With this information, I am confident new twinnings will soon take shape.

Minister Chong met with Deputy Director General of the Shanghai Pudong New Area People's Government. Minister Chong presented Deputy Director General Gu Yun Hao of Pudong with a copy of the BC-Asia Twinning Toolkit. Click photos to enlarge

They boast a population of 2.8 million citizens, home of the Shanghai Oriental Pearl Tower, and is essentially a brand new city built on the delta. After my presentation to the Pudong officials on British Columbia’s Asia Pacific Initiative, I detected immediate enthusiasm for opportunities that Pudong was keen to explore.

Perhaps, it is due to the fact that Pudong is organized into six functional areas, one of which will be the future home of Shanghai 2010.

The other areas concentrate on finance and trade, agriculture, export and processing, free trade zone, and the international airport zone.With such diversity, cities in British Columbia can find areas of mutual interest and work towards developing a successful “twinning” relationship.

Pudong began as a “pilot” project of Shanghai, and its success may signal other pilots in other parts of China. We will need to stay alert and ensure our local governments in British Columbia can seize upon the many opportunities which are sure to follow.

In the afternoon, British Columbia’s trade and investment representative in Shanghai, John McDonald, provided a tour through our fantastic demonstration Dream Home Canada Complex showcasing the use of British Columbia hemlock, fir and other species as building material and value added wood products (window and door frames) in Chinese home construction.

Minister Ida Chong and John McDonald, B.C.'s trade and investment representative in Shanghai, in front of Dream Home Canada.  Click photo to enlarge

We then headed for Suzhou, some 2 hours west of Shanghai to join up with Victoria Mayor Alan Lowe and some members of the Victoria-Suzhou Sister City Association who will be arriving later tonight.

Tomorrow, we spend the entire day in Suzhou and I will report back on the events at day’s end. Until then, goodnight B.C.!