Trade with Asia

Archived Topic Box from the 2007 Seventh Annual Benchmark Report

Volume II of the BC Progress Board's 2005 interim benchmark report, Special Focus on BC Trade and Emerging Asian Opportunities, highlighted BC's growing trade with Asian countries.

Overall, British Columbia has benefited from the rapid expansion in China and India, by creating strong demand for many of BC's export products while effectively driving commodity prices up world-wide. India and China have emerged as BC's strongest growth markets, with exports to India increasing seven fold and exports to China three fold over the last decade. British Columbia is well-positioned to take advantage of the opportunities offered by continued Asian economic growth.

Our well-educated workforce and stable institutions should provide domestic industries with the opportunity to move up the value chain in manufacturing to take advantage of low-cost Chinese component imports, to keep operating costs low, and to thereby expand both resource exports and diversification into other highervalue product lines. To make the most of this opportunity, BC needs to ensure our general economic foundations remain strong, and that the province anticipates and responds to the challenges presented by growth in emerging markets.