Canadian newspaper urges businesses to seize China opportunity

Canada's major English daily The Globe and Mail on Saturday issued a special edition on China, focusing on bilateral trade relations and urging Canadians to grasp the tremendous opportunities China is bringing about.

China's rising is one of the most profound shifts in the global order in modern time. Canada's trade and investment with China is booming.

But "we're also falling behind our competitors, and badly lagging our potential," a top article in the business section said.

Having a special bond with China forged by Norman Bethune, and one of the longest diplomatic relations with China in the west, Canada shares with China a goodwill, which should be translating into big dividends for "our economy", another article on the front page said.

Half of the newspaper's business section talks about trade with China, with four whole pages printing charts and figures on the GDP, trade and other economic sectors of China and Canada, and trade between the two countries.

More than a dozen articles tell about Canadian companies' successful stories or experiences in China, analyze China's trade opportunities for Canadians and offer tips on investing in China.

The Canadian government is about to complete two deals, one on foreign investment protection, another on intellectual property with China, which could fundamentally change the way Canada does business with China, the newspaper reported.

"Companies of all sizes must develop strategies to profit from the opportunities China offers -- even the smallest player needs to be aware of its place in the competitive landscape," it said.

In the "Focus" section, two special reporters tell what they saw on a cruise trip along the Yangtze River, China's longest river.

"The Yangtze is now China's new Silk Road. The country's mightiest river handles 70 percent of all shipping. Five hundred million people ... live in its watershed, producing 40 percent of the country's grain and 50 percent of its cotton," the report said.

Source: Xinhua