14 BCBusiness november 2014
W
Y
B . C .' S N E W S A N D V i E W S
f r O m i N D U S t r Y S E C t O r S
11/14
1 7 m A N U fA C t U r i N g
Why becoming CEO
of Ritchie Bros. is not
an odd t for Ravi
Saligram.
front
lınes
t r A D E
Y
ou'd be hard pressed to fi nd someone on Howe
Street who doesn't think the establishment
of a trading hub in Vancouver for the Chinese
currency Renminbi makes sense. While the
impact of a Renminbi hub—a piece of virtual
fi nancial architecture that could ease the fl ow of trade
and investment between Canada and China—would be
small, it could bolster the trade that B.C. companies do
with their Chinese counterparts by up to $120 million per
year, according to Bruce Flexman, former head of trade
lobby group AdvantageBC. And as a symbol of the growing
economic ties between the two regions, it's a signifi cant
leap forward, especially as Chinese investors eye B.C.'s
various natural resource projects.
The Chinese government has been scouting for a
location for a designated trading centre for a while now,
trying to fi nd something in a western time zone that would
allow the Renminbi to be tradable around the clock. On
November 10, Prime Minister Stephen Harper—at the
invitation of China's ambassador to Canada, who has
Hub of
Activity
B.C. makes a bid to house a trading
hub that could ease the fl ow of money
between Canada and China
by Jacob Parry
ON A MISSION
Premier Christy Clark and Minister
of International Trade Teresa Wat
(left) with Tian Guoli, Bank of China
chairman, at the bank's Beijing
headquarters.
