SEARCH NEWS
GOVERNMENT: Alberta politicians lack Asia strategy, motivation
        (AlbertaIndex, February 13, Wednesday) --- Politicians and mainstream commentators have long discussed the need for Alberta to diversify its economy and reduce dependence on the increasingly troubled US economy.
        Asia would be the logical place to expand Alberta’s ties and exports as the region’s economy and importance on the world stage continues to grow. But Canadian politicians at the Federal and provincial levels continue to show little appetite or curiosity to find out more about the people or the booming economies of Asia.

The mainstream media suffers from a lack of Asian consciousness and understanding, shown clearly by the lack of Asian representation in Canada’s newsrooms. Decision makers don’t seem to think this a problem even as the country’s Asian population grows and Asia’s influence expands right before their eyes.

The result is that many young Canadians grow up thinking only North American knowledge and European culture matters while Asia is a distant, exotic location.

Alberta’s election on March 3 would seem an ideal opportunity to examine the province’s development strategy. While politicians have focused most of their attention on domestic issues like homelessness, health, oil royalties and the environmental impact of the oilsands --- important issues as they are --- none has presented a vision on how the province can tap into Asia’s growth for Alberta’s long term development. Here’s an opportunity that sorely begs to be seized.

As a reminder, the Conference Board of Canada this week released a study showing Canada has significantly understated the size of its growing trade ties with Asia.

The study, aptly titled, Canada’s “Missing Trade” with Asia, concluded that Canada’s trade with Asia has been underreported as a result of foreign affiliate sales, and the increasing importance of services trade. It arrived at this conclusion after authors Danielle Goldfarb and Louis Theriault created a broader measure of trade that takes better account of these activities.

“With this “missing” trade included, Canada has a much more sizeable economic relationship with Asia than official data show,” the study noted.

It also found a ‘discouraging’ trend: Canada underperforms by even more than official data suggest, particularly for services sales to Asia.

The study said Canada is failing to recognize Asia’s importance, and slipping behind the rest of the world in integrating itself into Asian supply chains.

The parties battling to govern Alberta after March 3 will have to pay heed to this latest report, yet another reminder that in a globalized world, distance is constantly shrinking. Asia, once the continent looming on the other side of the planet, is much closer than many of our leaders imagine.


Did you enjoy this article? Please share it!
Reddit!Del.icio.us!Google!Netscape!StumbleUpon!Newsvine!Furl!Yahoo!