The agreements Wuyi University signed last week with UNBC and Barkerville to work together is the latest in a growing series of uncomfortable truths for the naysayers who cry the blues whenever provincial and local politicians head to China to do business.
Shari Green is following in the steps of Dan Rogers and Colin Kinsley before her in seeing the value of the mayor and members of council making occasional trips to China as part of trade delegations looking to form business partnerships.
When Green had the nerve to cross the Pacific last fall, joined by councillors Lyn Hall and Dave Wilbur, as well as acting city manager Kathleen Soltis, to visit Jiangmen, Prince George's proposed sister city in the Guangdong province, there was much crying the blues by residents who wanted the mayor to stay home and pave roads.
Never mind that the province paid for the majority of the trip. Never mind that China, not the United States, is now B.C.'s largest market for softwood lumber. Never mind that Canfor has made incredible inroads into the Chinese market, selling more than a billion board feet of lumber there each year, which pays huge dividends to Northern B.C.
Wuyi University, based in Jiangmen, is just the latest of 35 international education partnerships UNBC has with other post-secondary institutions around the world. Wuyi University's affiliation with Barkerville is particularly impressive, since it will generate tourist traffic to this region while also addressing some of the missing historical pieces about the role of immigrant Chinese workers in the development of the Cariboo and British Columbia in the 19th century.
It is these kinds of agreements that make Prince George a working member of the global marketplace, rather than just a city that talks about being open for business but refuses to go beyond our neighbour to the south for trade opportunities.
The Regional Market Expansion Forum planned for this Thursday isn't just some make-work project by Initiatives Prince George. It's that kind of effort that gives area businesses the information, the expertise and the connections needed to enter the global marketplace without wasting time and money.
Building education and business relationships across the world is paying off for Prince George in unanticipated ways. The Chinese Consulate General is in town Thursday to not just take part in the market expansion forum but to visit the Prince George Public Library to mark the donation of more than 200 books to the library's multilingual section.
It's that growing Chinese economic activity in the city and the region that helps pay to fix potholes and keep swimming pools and golf courses open for local residents.
In hindsight, those trips to China by Kinsley, Rogers and now Green look like they were worth every penny.
