Foreign and Military Affairs

New actions needed to promote China-Canada ties

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-05-26 14:46

TORONTO - The bilateral ties between China and Canada, which features a new era together with new opportunities and new expectations, need new actions, says Mei Ping, former Chinese ambassador to Canada.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and Canada.

"In China, the fortieth year symbolizes an important turning point in one's life, because, at the age of 40, we are supposed to be mature and free from confusion. Relations between countries are the same. After 40 years, we should be mature, thoughtful and not to be swayed by emotions in our dealings with each other," Mei, also a member of the Chinese Foreign Ministry's advisory committee, said Tuesday in an interview by Xinhua.

He pointed out that economic cooperation and trade are important components of China-Canada relations. "However, the level of cooperation between us has yet to be upgraded. Our trade volume accounts merely one percent and six percent of China and Canada's total volume respectively," he said.

"Not long ago, both Canadian and Chinese experts discussed the prospect of our trade and reached consensus that there is a potential to double our current trade volume to some $60 billion in the next five years," he said.

He added this growth target is obtainable because Canada is a major developed country and China has a competitive labor force, huge market potentials and improving infrastructure.

Given the size of our economies and levels of development, bilateral trade and investment is still very low, said Mei. "There is huge room for further expansion."

He stressed that China's development offers rare opportunities. "In 2009, China's contribution to world economic development stood at 50 percent. China has become the world's No 2 importer and largest new emerging market. The ever-increasing economic scale, market potential and consumption demand are putting new impetus to the economic and trade cooperation between our two countries," said Mei.

Canada's trade diversification strategy opens new prospects for our economic cooperation. "Traditionally, Canada relied heavily on the United States in its foreign trade, with more than 70 percent of its total volume. Since the financial crisis, Canada's export to the US declined dramatically and the Canadian government earmarked 500 billion Canadian dollars ($467 billion) to implement its global strategy and opened six new trade offices in China in a hope to promote and facilitate bilateral trade."

He also noted that the green economy has a big role to play in enlarging our economic cooperation. The Chinese government has vowed to develop new industries, which are closely related to a green economy, energy conservation, environmental protection, communication and high-end manufacturing sectors.

"In all of these, Canada has a cutting edge with advanced technologies and concepts, from which China has a lot to learn and benefit," said the former Chinese ambassador to Canada.

He also noted that apart from expanded economic cooperation, we need also modernize our political relations.

"We should modernize our perception of each other, and begin with adopting a new angle and stepping into the shoes of other side, if necessary, and abandon stereotyped and psychological bias against each other."

"People without prejudice will agree that China has become an important driving force behind the growth of the world economy as has been proved by what happened during the international financial crisis.

"We should feel optimistic and confident about the future of our bilateral relations, for things are constantly changing for the better and the main trend of our relations is development," concluded the former ambassador.