Canada expects to benefit from China's economic growth

The Canadian province of British Columbia (BC) is expecting that China's economic growth will fuel a "significant increase" in activities through its ports and intermodal facilities in the coming years.

Speaking at a Vancouver Board of Trade function Wednesday, Mary Polak, the B.C. minister of transportation and infrastructure, said that since 2005 the western province, the federal government and private sector partners had spent 22 billion Canadian dollars (22.075 billion U.S. dollars) on infrastructure projects to build trade corridors with the Asia-Pacific and other parts of the world.

By 2020, an additional 25 billion dollars will be spent on key infrastructure, covering roads, rail lines and ports infrastructure, to meet demands both domestically and abroad.

"This is a long-term partnership. It involves making sure we have the infrastructure ready to receive the kind of imports that will see us in partnership with China, with other countries in Asia," Polak said.

"It almost means that we have the opportunity of exporting British Columbia's goods like we've never had before. We are the closest port to Asia," he added.

Prince Rupert in northern B.C. is the closest major North American west coast port to Asia -- 36 hours closer to Shanghai than Vancouver and 68 hours closer than Los Angeles.

In 2007, the port completed a 170-million-dollar conversion of its Fairview Terminal from a break bulk facility to an import and export terminal.

The port is now set to receive an additional 300 million dollars in development, highlighted by the 90-million-dollar Road Rail Utility Corridor on the Ridley Island industrial site that is set to break ground this month and be completed by late 2013.

"It will give us the capacity to receive what are tens of thousands of new container shipping opportunities that will come from Asia," said Polak, referring to the port expansion.

"There really is nothing to compare in Canada, in North America, with the scale of the port activity that's taking place in Asia now, and it's almost difficult for us to conceive of the growth that's about to happen there," Polak said.

Michael Gurney, corporate communication manager for the Prince Rupert Port Authority, told Xinhua that the new facilities were needed to meet demands, noting that the containerized cargo throughput for this year was up 22 percent at the port by the end of October, while in the first 10 months of 2012 the increase was 44 percent over the same period last year.

"We've seen ... over the last five years of containerized trade here significant imports from China, and there's no sign of that stopping," he added.

In its "Pacific Gateway Transportation Strategy 2012-2020," B.C. has also earmarked 18 billion dollars to build three liquefied natural gas plants, as well as 3.8 billion dollars to boost bulk and container terminal capacity at various ports to expand trade with Asia.

"This past year, exports to Asia have increased by 14 percent, that's 32.8 billion dollars, so it's a very, very significant part of our jobs plan going forward," Polak said.