Canadian, Chinese firms explore ways to boost business

VANCOUVER - More than a hundred Chinese and Canadian entrepreneurs and officials have explored ways to remove barriers blocking businesses between China and Canada as the two-day second Canada-China Investment Summit in Vancouver closed on Monday.

The event, hosted jointly by the Canada China Chamber of Industry and Commerce and China Federation of Overseas Chinese Entrepreneurs, resulted in specific investment deals reached between Canadian and Chinese companies.

Canadian company Response Biomedical, which was found in 1992 in Vancouver and has been doing business in China over the last 10 years, signed a deal with a Chinese company to design and provide new heart condition diagnosis products directly into the Chinese healthcare market.

"It will help us do more research and development, more innovation. And working with that company will allow us to get that innovation and new product straight to the patients much faster, because they have the network to drive the physician education and get new technologies into the doctors' hands in China and all tiers of the market," Response's CEO Barbara Kinnaird told Xinhua.

For its part, Joinstar Biomedical from China's Hangzhou city, said the deal is their first investment into a Canadian firm. Tian Kun, from Joinstar Biomedical Technology, said the move would bolster the types and quality of healthcare technology they'll take to market in China.

"From contact and response from Response Biomedical, we are overwhelmed with their development and research abilities, especially on the cardio-disease so that's why we are working with Response Biomedical to hopefully bring the new technology to Chinese market," Tian told Xinhua.

The investment summit follows a wave of bilateral deals between China and Canada, including the Foreign Investment Protection Agreement, which came into effect in October, and the creation of the first renminbi clearing house in Canada. Both moves aim to make it easier for Chinese and Canadian firms to do business.

British Columbia has been leading the way for Canada in trying to attract Chinese investment. Richard Lee, a lawmaker in British Columbia said about 95 percent of the region's economy is comprised of small and medium-sized enterprises, adding that this summit offered a chance for several of those firms to link up with Chinese businesses.

"The big business have their own channel. But for small and medium-sized businesses, no matter in Canada, in British Columbia as well as in China, how to connect them together so that we have more opportunity for our trade, for export, for their import as well," Lee said.

Participants at the summit expected bilateral trade between China and Canada will climb up much higher in the coming years, with firms in industries such as bio-tech, natural resources, and agriculture leading the way.

Alice Wong, a member of the Canadian parliament, told Xinhua that she believed the summit was very timely, mainly "because this is one of the investment summits right after our state visit to China and also the APEC."