SPEECH

Remarks by
Dalton McGuinty, Premier of Ontario
To The Canada China Business Council Banquet and Annual General Meeting

November 8, 2005 -- CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY

Good evening.

On behalf of our delegation, I thank you for your warm hospitality.

I am particularly grateful that Vice-Chair Gu has joined us this evening.

Madame Gu was governor of Jiangsu twenty years ago when she signed an accord of friendship between Jiangsu and Ontario — an accord that has greatly benefited both provinces.

In a few days, I will travel to Nanjing to celebrate the 20 years of friendship between Ontario and Jiangsu by renewing that accord.

Our renewed memorandum of understanding will promote cooperation in several areas including educ a tion, innovation and health — and it calls for the creation of an Ontario-Jiangsu Business Council.

I want to thank the Canada China Business Council for inviting me to speak this evening.

There is more than $30 billion worth of trade between our two countries — and almost half of it is trade between Ontario and China.

It has been a wish of mine to visit this beautiful, exciting country since I was a young boy.

In 1973, after Canada launched relations with China, my family hosted three of the first nine Chinese exchange students to come to Canada.

It must have been quite an introduction to Canada.

Our family already was home to 10 children, my mother and father and three dogs.

Well, today, one of those students is China's Ambassador to South Africa.

Another is one of China's diplomats at the United Nations in New York.

And I understand the third is working here in Beijing.

Because of this personal introduction in 1973, I feel I am not visiting a foreign land as much as I am now renewing a friendship — a friendship that is more than 30 years old.

This evening, I want to talk to you, of course, about Ontario and China, and how we can prosper, together.

I want you to know that Ontario is open for business — and Ontario is open to China.

More specifically, I want to talk to you about three things.

Education, innovation and investment.

My province, like China, believes passionately in education.

Ontario has a well-educated, highly skilled workforce.

Fifty-seven per cent of our workforce — aged 25 to 64 — has completed post-secondary education.

That's more than in any other industrialized country.

And we are determined to keep building upon our strong education foundation.

W e recently announced a $6.2-billion investment in our universities, colleges and training programs.

There are thousands of students from China in Ontario schools, colleges and universities.

And I know they are returning to a China that has made a massive commitment to investing in its people by expanding and enriching its universities.

It seems to me that Ontario and China are — as we say in Canada — on the same page.

We both understand that the brains and know-how of a highly skilled workforce are the competitive edge of the 21 st century.

The university and college presidents with me on this mission are keen to build stronger ties with China.

I know Mr. Zhou Ji, China's Minister of Education, has talked about your need to increase the supply of high-quality facilities and resources.

Ontario wants to help you meet that challenge.

Education is essential to our future — and our capacity for innovation.

As Premier of Ontario, I get to assign the top jobs in our government.

I gave myself the job of Minister of Research and Innovation, because it is vitally important to our prosperity.

Like many of your leaders, I have a science background and I believe in the importance of applied research and innovation as fundamental drivers of the economy.

We recently opened a centre for innovation, named MaRS, that brings researchers, entrepreneurs, and marketing experts together, under one roof, across the street from my office, in Toronto.

It's part of a corridor of innovation that includes dozens of public research institutes — that work with industry to speed new discoveries and processes from the lab to the marketplace.

I know that China, like Ontario, has a proud history of innovation.

The paper this speech is written on, of course, is one China's earliest and most famous innovations.

Last month, the world watched in admiration as China launched its second manned space mission — Shenzhou VI.

Considering the amount of emphasis that China's government has placed on science and technology, I have no doubt that there will be many more innovations.

Just imagine what we can do — if we do more together.

Finally, I want to talk about investment.

We are interested in two-way investment.

Our businesses are intensely interested in investing in China — one of the largest, fastest growing, most exciting markets in the world.

And we understand China's strategy of encouraging its enterprises to “Go Global” and we welcome Chinese investment in Ontario.

After the United States, China is Ontario's second largest trading partner.

But there is still so much more we could do, together.

Ontario powers the Canadian economy,

We generate almost 42 per cent of Canada's real Gross Domestic Product and have a quality of life that is the envy of the world.

Our GDP, at $518 billion, is larger than that of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Jiangsu combined — and Ontario's economy is expected to remain among the fastest growing regions of the major industrialized countries.

We are Canada's most industrialized province.

And our largest sectors are among the world's most advanced.

They include auto, advanced manufacturing, machinery, chemicals, plastics, biotechnology and health sciences, information and communications technology, aerospace, food, forestry and mining.

We are the headquarters for most major Canadian banks and insurance companies and an increasingly important centre for overseas stock market listings of Chinese companies.

Ontario is the gateway to the North American market.

In fact, trade between Ontario and the United States is greater than the trade between the U.S. and any country in the world — except for Canada as a whole and Mexico.

Ontario lies in the heart of the North American free trade area: goods enter the U.S. and Mexico duty free, along sophisticated transportation networks.

And we're right in the middle of one of the largest consumer markets in the world — consisting of 435 million people with high average disposable incomes.

Chinese companies looking to expand to North America should consider Ontario as a base.

Because we are also a passageway to the entire world.

We have one of the most diverse workforces on the planet — because people have immigrated to Ontario from all over the world.

Our people speak more than 100 different languages.

They embrace every culture.

And they understand every market.

For example, half a million Ontarians are of Chinese descent, and half of them can speak Mandarin or other Chinese dialects.

In every walk of life, Chinese Canadians are making a tremendous contribution to our economy and our society, often from positions of leadership.

Ontarians live together in harmony — and prosperity.

Because of our strengths, Ontario has attracted $4.5 billion worth of new auto investment to Ontario, in just the last two years.

The only overseas Lexus manufacturing plant — producing Toyota's premium brand — is located in Ontario.

When you do business with Ontario, you have access to a well-educated, highly skilled and incredibly diverse workforce, working in a hotbed of innovation, that's a low-cost gateway to North America — and a passageway to the world economy.

I want to conclude by thanking you again for welcoming us.

Just as my family was stronger for having opened our home to our new friends from China so many years ago, and those friends have succeeded, at least in part, I hope, because of their experience in Canada, I know that Ontario and China can be even stronger, if we do even more to work, to build, and to grow, together.

Thank you.