Posted in: Press Releases

February 23rd, 2011

“Shanghai is China’s Toronto. It’s a kind of business atmosphere that is very strong,” said the Ambassador. “Hong Kong, however, is a place that is very important to China’s economic reform and its open door policy.”

“As Vancouver is a gateway of Canada to the Pacific, Hong Kong is a gateway of China to the rest of the world,” he said.

Ambassador Zhang, who took up his appointment in Ottawa last November, was speaking at a 350-people luncheon coordinated by the Hong Kong Economic & Trade Office (HKETO) in Toronto. The luncheon was jointly presented by the Hong Kong-Canada Business Association, Ontario Chamber of Commerce, Investment Industry Association of Canada, and Supply Chain & Logistics Association Canada, and supported by 10 Chinese business associations.

He spoke on the new global economic order, China’s economic landscape, as well as Hong Kong’s role in China’s economic development. He also shared his vision of Canada-China bilateral trade to the audience, including leaders from the political and various business sectors.

“China has mapped out the course and strategic missions for the next five years. We’ll continue to focus on transforming the economic growth model, deepen reform and opening up, protect and improve people’s livelihood, and in doing so, promote the long term steady and fast growth of our economy,” the Ambassador said.

In 2010, the two-way trade between Canada and China reached US$36 billion, a sharp 20 per cent increase. “This, however, was only 1.2 per cent of China’s total foreign trade and five percent of that of Canada.”

As the former Ambassador to Australia, he pointed out that China’s trade with Canada was only around 40 per cent of the country’s trade with Australia.

The Ambassador described Hong Kong as one of the top three world financial hubs, which has served as “the window for mainland China’s reform and opening up, attracting foreign investment and the major platform for Chinese companies to go public.”

“At present, Hong Kong is China’s primary intermediary for overseas investment,” he said. “It’ll continue to play a significant role in China’s economic development.”

The HKETO Director, Ms Maureen Siu, said in her remarks at the luncheon that Hong Kong has been rated as the freest economy in the world by Fraser Institute since the Canadian think-tank started the ranking decades ago.

Chinese version on next page.

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