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Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/526329
July 2015 BCBusiness 153 bcbusiness.ca olin Hansen has done this before: a transpacific f light leading into two weeks of dawn-to-dusk meetings, fuelled by enough coffee to start a trade deficit with Colombia. It's early April and he is packing his bags for another whirlwind tour that will touch down in Seoul, Beijing, Shanghai, Xiamen, Shenzhen and Hong Kong. Hansen is only a few months into his new role as president and CEO of AdvantageBC, a nonprofit organization that promotes B.C.'s business sector on the world stage. He has, however, been making the rounds in Asia for nearly 15 years as a former senior minister in the provincial government. Over the years, one trade mission has followed another, with one key goal in mind: to open the doors to trade with China. Hansen, like many observers, has long seen China as a land of vast, still- untapped opportunity. The country began opening its economy to market reforms in 1979, and since then has experienced staggering progress with real GDP growth averaging nearly 10 per cent per year. At that rate, the Chinese economy doubles its size in real terms every eight years (mature markets such as B.C.'s prime trading partner, the United States, haven't exceeded five per cent real annual GDP growth in more than a decade). There are other quickly expanding economies in Asia and elsewhere, but none exert the sheer gravitational force of China, with nearly one-fifth of the world's population. Yet despite a voracious Chinese appe- tite for B.C. commodities and years of effort by successive governments ( NDP Premier Glen Clark led a trade mission to China in 1998), B.C. companies have been tentative to seize Chinese oppor- tunities. Now, as China's economy slows and turns to a more consumer-oriented focus, the nature of its trade opportuni- ties is shifting. B.C. trade with China grew substan- tially over the past 10 years, with exports expanding from $1.2 billion in 2004 to $6.3 billion in 2014. On the face of it, those are encouraging figures, but they represent a micro-fraction of the $1.41 trillion China imports annually. Canada is the 17th-largest exporter to China, with B.C. representing about a third of PLUS: You're invited to the BCBusiness "Doing Business in China" breakfast on October 27 at the Rosewood Hotel Georgia in Vancouver, sponsored by HSBC. events@bcbusiness.ca ★ ★ s t o r i e s b y d e e h o n ★ ★ Building Bridges b.c.'s trade with china has increased fivefold over the past decade. but growth of that magnitude is unlikely to continue, especially as the Middle Kingdom looks beyond resources for imports ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Doing Business in C h i n a C