Premier David Eby’s lacklustre four-month legislature session just wrapping up this week created more problems than it solved.
Maybe a change of scenery will get him back on track.
So he’s off on a 10-day trade mission starting Saturday to Malaysia, South Korea and Japan.
A fair share of the money backing the mega-billion development projects his government is depending on comes from there. So one of the mission’s goals is to meet investors and — as one official put it — “give them a big hug.”
He’ll reassure them their money is safe and sound and encourage them to make a lot more.
Officials briefed reporters on the trip Wednesday and said that foreign Pacific Rim direct investment is a major part of B.C.’s development across the board, not just the megaprojects.
They count 2,200 purchase and acquisition deals over the past decade that have created 33,500 jobs. Asian money has also stimulated B.C. start-ups and fuelled a lot of the research and development work.
The message to corporate boardrooms is: “We appreciate this business and we are looking for more investment,” said an official.
A partial list of the major Asian investors in B.C. includes Malaysia’s Petronas (25 per cent of LNG Canada), Mitsubishi (15 per cent of LNG Canada), Sumitomo (Gibraltar Copper) and others.
The $50 billion worth of mining potential in northwest B.C. that Eby highlighted this week will be included in his pitch. (The huge political hassle over the bill to fast-track projects like that will likely only come up if asked.)
There will be some emphasis on “the need to take care of the investors who are already here, so that we can keep them happy and we can get them because they know the terrain.”
“It’s easier to get them to invest as opposed to looking for just new ones,” an official said at the briefing.
But Eby will be open to new players as well.
Another goal is to continue the never-ending effort to diversify B.C. trade and get away from relying on the U.S. That concept is as old as Confederation, but became much more acute after the Trump assault on Canadian sovereignty and exporters.
Eby went to South Korea and Japan two years ago with trade diversification in mind, but this time it’s much more urgent.
More than a dozen non-government officials from universities and the private sector will be on hand for all or parts of the dozens of meetings that are scheduled.
Eby said: “Our largest trading partner has become increasingly unreliable, so now is the time to expand international markets.”
B.C. governments for years have hailed statistics showing that the province’s dependence on the U.S. is lessening as more trade is being done with other countries.
But two respected economists — Jock Finalyson and Ken Peacock — wrote an analysis last week suggesting B.C. relies as much or even more on the U.S. than it always has.
The officials briefing on the trip cautioned that the statistics are complicated and include a number of variables.
Eby’s itinerary includes Tokyo, Osaka, where it will be B.C. Week in the Canada pavilion at Expo 25, Kuala Lumpur and Seoul. He’ll be accompanied by Agriculture Minister Lana Popham, and parliamentary secretary for Asia-Pacific Trade Paul Choi.
Popham is going because food and agri-tech are on the list of things B.C. wants to keep selling.
Eby first announced the trip this month at Finest at Sea’s facility in Victoria Harbour, where thousands of kilograms of sablefish were being prepped for sale on the other side of the Pacific.
Eby said earlier: “The advice that we’ve received about trade missions like this, and particularly to Asia, is that relationships are crucially important. This is an important way to show respect for the investments that have been made.”
It’s very sound advice, but there’s a long lead time before taxpayers can expect to see benefits. Petronas was constantly in the news during the development of LNG Canada and there was blow-by-blow coverage of the negotiations that led to the investment.
That was more than 10 years ago, and the project is only now approaching liftoff.
