British Columbia is about to reopen trade offices in Japan and China, a move that could heighten competition for trade with Asia, according to the Vancouver Sun.
While B.C. currently has zero trade and investment offices in Asia, Alberta has five, Washington State has five, and Queensland, Australia has nine.These bare numbers are one thing. Beyond them, the competition to stand out in Asia from this part of the world looks even stiffer next to Alberta's sexy oil and gas industry and Washington State's heavyweight Boeing, Weyerhaeuser and Microsoft companies, which have engaged China since the 1970s and 1980s.
By all accounts, it is high time for B.C. to get beyond the wood demonstration project it cost-shares with the forest industry in Shanghai and its Tourism B.C. office in Tokyo, which has been there since 1992.
The new offices represent the latest in a string of moves intended to make B.C. the trade gateway to North America, reaching as far as India.