UPDATE: Invest Ottawa targets Chinese access for local firms

Invest Ottawa president and CEO Bruce Lazenby. (Photo by Mark Holleron)

Published on December 4, 2012

Mark Brownlee

Officials at Ottawa’s lead economic development agency say they will soon be introducing a new initiative aimed at assisting local firms make inroads into the Chinese market.

In a presentation to city councillors, Invest Ottawa president and CEO Bruce Lazenby said the organization had been working on the concept with the Beijing government for several years.

There will be some interest in helping Chinese companies into the Canadian market, said Mr. Lazenby in an interview. The main emphasis, however will be on getting Canadian technology into China by providing them with researchers, capital and hopefully better access to Asian markets.

“It’s a great opportunity to provide investment opportunities for Ottawa companies and a great opportunity for Ottawa companies to find a market in China, which of course is a massively growing market,” said Mr. Lazenby.

While dubbed a “research park,” the initiative will operate out of the Invest Ottawa offices downtown for at least the first few years. Mr. Lazenby compared it to similar facilities in Silicon Valley and Finland, said Mr. Lazenby.

More details will be released at a news conference scheduled for next week, he said.

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Andrew Rees: - December 6, 2012 at 09:21:59

It's wonderful to see progress being made on the international investment and trade front. Hopefully, this type of initiative will be replicated with other key trading partners like India. Congratulations Invest Ottawa... one more step towards making Ottawa the best place in Canada to start and grow a knowledge-based business!

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Andrew Rees: - December 5, 2012 at 11:33:44

From 'Discover Canada' - The Rights & Responsibilities of Citizenship... "A Railway from Sea to Sea - British Columbia joined Canada in 1871 after Ottawa promised to build a railway to the West Coast. On November 7, 1885, a powerful symbol of unity was completed when Donald Smith (Lord Strathcona), the Scottish-born director of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), drove the last spike. The project was financed by British and American investors and built by both European and Chinese labour. Afterwards the Chinese were subject to discrimination, including the Head Tax, a race-based entry fee. The Government of Canada apologized in 2006 for this discriminatory policy. After many years of heroic work, the CPR’s “ribbons of steel” fulfilled a national dream."

Anonytron

- December 5, 2012 at 16:46:04

And what does this have to do with red army china stealing intellectual property from everyone, hacking into our systems including NORTEL and the Canadian Governement for over 1 decade now, manipulating their currency, and being run by a ruthless military? I can understand that some Chinese folks moved to Canada to help build a rail road MANY YEARS AGO, but they succeeded by being Canadian, not working as slave labor for the red communist chinese army.
Andrew Rees

- December 7, 2012 at 13:22:14

@anonytron, you raise several important issues of Global concern... intellectual property protection, human rights, currency manipulation, etc. There are some balanced articles in The Economist on all of these topics, articles I highly recommend you take the time to read. For example, in this article [http://www.economist.com/node/21553040] speaks to the topic of intellectual property in China. It's a fact the Chinese played a pivotal role in Canada's motto 'A Mari Usque Ad Mare' and out of respect, I think we as Canadians have a duty to them to respectfully 'work the issues' rather than 'mindlessly bash' a much needed trading partner.

Anonytron: - December 5, 2012 at 10:20:13

Have we not all be warned over and over again about the chinese governement/military stealing our intellectual property? Why in the hell would Invest Ottawa encourage us to deal with china? I learned my lesson years ago when they stole my designs.

Anonytron: - December 4, 2012 at 22:17:34

Nice to see one socialist organization, Invest Ottawa, working together with a communist organization, red army communist china. I think spending canadian tax payer's dollars to help the red army communist china start up capitalist organizations here in Canada is a good idea and money well spent. We need to make it more difficult for the local, canadian guy who is already trying to keep his startup afloat, and let him compete against the canadian socialist funded red army china, with their manipulated currency. We as canadians have much to learn from the chinese army on how to run a business. When was china's last democratic election again?