Both sides are showing strong desires to expand trade and economic cooperation during Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien's ongoing visit to China between February 9-18.

A total of 203 projects involving 5.3 billion Canadian dollars (US$3.51 billion) have been signed in Beijing, the first stop of the prime minister's delegation, according to officials with the delegation.

The other two stops are Shanghai and Hong Kong.

"China and Canada are two complementary economies and have been steadily increasing trade and economic cooperation since the two countries established diplomatic ties in the early 1970s," said a Chinese official.

Statistics from the General Administration of Customs indicate that trade between China and Canada reached a record high of US$4.77 billion in 1999, up 9.2 percent from the previous year. Last year it rose 44.9 percent to reach US$6.91 billion.

China's major exports to Canada include machinery and electronic products, high-tech products and textiles; and the country mainly imports from Canada paper pulp, potash fertilizer, machinery, electronic products and wheat.

Canada is China's 10th largest trade partner and has invested US$2.33 billion in China.

"Business people from the two countries have carried out a lot of cooperation in such fields as agriculture, forestry, transportation, communication, electricity, energy, metallurgy, environmental protection, medical care and finance," said the official.

A company official with the Ontario trade team to China said: "The impressive pace of economic development in China and the anticipation of China's full World Trade Organization membership have provided numerous business development and trade opportunities in this dynamic market."

He expects China's gross domestic product to maintain an annual growth of over 7 percent in the next five to 10 years.

The Chinese mainland is the fourth largest export market for Ontario, and Ontario's exports to the Chinese mainland were worth 662 million Canadian dollars (US$438.4 million) in the first three quarters of last year, up 209 percent from the same period of 1999, according to statistics from the Ontario Exports Inc, an agency of the government of Ontario.

Ontario's total exports to the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong were worth 1,076 million Canadian dollars (US$712.6 million) and accounted for 53 percent of its exports to the top four Asian markets -- the Chinese mainland, China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Japan, and South Korea.

Tao Jingzhou, a lawyer with the US-based Coudert Brothers law firm, said Canada's strengths in agriculture, water conservation, energy, environmental protection and telecommunications are what China needs to help it with its economic reforms.

He added that China's gradual opening up of its capital market is a major attraction to Canadian firms.

(China Daily 02/14/2001)