Visit to China Results in New Investment and Creates New Partnerships and Opportunities for Canada’s Forest, Energy and Clean Tech Sectors

June 9, 2017  --  Beijing, China  --  Natural Resources Canada       

Canada and China have long enjoyed a special bond. China is Canada’s second-largest trading partner and a major investor in our resource industries that provide good paying jobs to support middle-class families in rural, northern, and urban centres across Canada. As the world undertakes the historic transition to a low-carbon future, our countries are natural partners that share a vision of economic growth rooted in clean energy and the sustainable development of our natural resources.

This week, Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources, the Honourable Jim Carr, led a trade mission to China to showcase the ingenuity, innovation and opportunities Canada has to offer. Minister Carr was joined by a delegation of over 50 representatives from Canada’s energy, forest and clean technology sectors, as well as provincial representatives and Indigenous leaders, all focused on strengthening ties with their Chinese counterparts to create more opportunities to expand market access, trade and investment.

The mission generated new business while successfully promoting the great opportunities Canada has to offer Chinese companies with an emphasis on fostering clean technologies and renewables, Canada's business-friendly environment and our diverse, highly educated and skilled workforce.

Minister Carr held successful meetings with Chinese ministerial counterparts, business leaders and investors to promote opportunities for Canada’s wealth of natural resources and innovative, low-carbon clean technologies to support China’s vision of clean economic growth. To strengthen partnerships of collaboration with the Chinese government, Minister Carr signed four memoranda of understanding (MOUs) with his Chinese counterparts. During the Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM) and Mission Innovation (MI) Ministerial, Minister Carr announced that Canada intends to host CEM/MI in 2019.

Minister Carr also discussed the early accomplishments of the Canada–China Clean Technology Working Group in fostering and growing the clean technology sectors of both countries to fuel the low-carbon future. To conclude the trip, Minister Carr visited the Sino-Canadian Low-Carbon Eco-District in Tianjin to showcase Canadian innovation in wood products and energy-efficient technology and their contribution to China’s environmental goals, as well as to announce the opening of a Chinese-Canadian Wood Technology Centre in Tianjin.

Quick Facts

Minister Carr welcomed the signing of a number of commercial agreements, totaling close to $100 million worth of investments with Canadian companies, including:

• A $50 million licensing agreement between Toronto’s Hydrogenics Corporation and China’s Blue-G New Energy Science & Technology Corporation that will integrate 1,000 zero-emission hydrogen fuel cell motors on Chinese city busses.

• An agreement between Canada’s SNC-Lavalin and China National Nuclear Corporation to implement advanced fuel technology, increase the operating life, and improve safety in the two CANDU Reactors currently operating in China.

• A $5 million agreement between Natural Resources Canada’s CanmetENERGY, and Jiangsu Sunrain Solar Energy Ltd. to provide technical support for Sunrain’s development of solar seasonal storage district heating systems in China. 

Minister Carr also signed MOUs with his Chinese counterparts in the following areas:

• The National Energy Administration on Cooperation in the Field of Energy that will serve as a mechanism for both countries to deepen energy-related collaboration;

• The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development to further cooperation on the development of sustainable eco-cities, which Canada’s wood products and clean technologies are well positioned to support;

• The Ministry of Land and Resources in the Fields of Earth Sciences and Metals and Minerals to serve as a platform to promote sustainable mineral resource development and collaboration on earth sciences research and to identify opportunities and increase dialogue in relation to market access, trade and investment; and

• The Chinese Academy of Sciences for Cooperation in the Sustainable Development of Natural Resources to promote cooperation on science and research for the sustainable development of natural resources.