Trade mission to China sure to pay dividends for Calgary

I write a monthly column in the Calgary Herald. Here is the full text of my June story:

The recently concluded Calgary Economic Development mission to Beijing and Shanghai was the largest trade mission that Calgary has ever undertaken, with more than 70 business people from the energy, finance, professional services and tourism sectors (not to mention Big Rock, which brought lots of product and made lots of new fans).

Despite my initial reservations about economic benefits of the trip, I was very pleased to lead this delegation and help set up some major meetings.

But this is not about my travelogue (although it was pretty cool to visit one of the 10 largest companies in the world and see their lobby decorated in Canadian flags with a 17-metre sign welcoming "Mayor Nenshi and the Calgary delegation").

This is about who we are and where we are going as a community. As I have long said, Calgary needs to be a great city on the global stage.

In order to succeed and be resilient, we need to attract investment and talent from around the world.

When a great geophysicist, say, or engineer is graduating from one of the best universities in the world, we need her to want to make her career in Calgary, to think of Calgary as her Wall Street, where she can be at the absolute top of her profession.

This means that we need to do a lot of things here at home, including investing in the urban fabric -things like parks and sports, arts and culture, great public spaces and public transit.

We know that these types of things are key factors in attracting global talent and form the cornerstone of our economic development strategy.

In order to attract talent and investment, we need to tell the story of Calgary. We cannot rely on our proximity to natural resources alone to carry us.

Even though Fort McMurray is just slightly more than a one-hour direct flight from Calgary, it's also just a fourhour direct flight from Toronto. We must make sure that we are well positioned to attract the investment and jobs that are associated with Alberta's resources.

Which brings us back to China -a country that will play an important role in our finance, energy and tourism future.

Calgary is starting to become a global financial centre, with most global investment banks having a presence here. While Canada produces only about four per cent of the world's oil and gas, we are responsible for up to 15 per cent of equity issues in the global energy industry, according to one investment banker I met on the trip.

We met with some of the largest banks in the world, one of which, Bank of China, is setting up a presence in Calgary now, and I suspect that another will soon announce its intention to do the same.

In energy, we have seen more than $13 billion in investment in the Alberta oilsands by Chinese oil companies over the past 18 months, and we heard there may be tens of billions more if we can build the infrastructure for export markets.

Finally, with Canada becoming an approved destination for Chinese visitors last year, we will soon see an influx of tourists. One large travel agency suggested it is expecting to triple its Canadian business in the next three years.

Given that China is expected to provide more than 100 million outbound tourists every year, it's critical that we capture a portion of this market, and that Calgary be on tourist itineraries as a hub and not just a transfer stop to the way to the mountains.

China is certainly not the only market we need to be looking at for investors and customers, but it is an important one, as we saw from the sheer size of our delegation. Many feel that, as China improves its labour, environment and human rights record, further investment from Chinese companies will be welcome. I expect that many of the companies that came with us will sign many new deals with the Chinese companies they met (I heard of one $25-million deal that's close to being signed), and that this will lead to greater prosperity for both sides.

So, I am now convinced that these types of trips are good things for mayors to do. I don't intend to do them very often, but the results for Calgary mean it was time and money well spent.

And if you will indulge me in a bit of travelogue: The growth pressures on Chinese cities are incredible. Beijing adds 600,000 people per year. Shanghai is building a new town for up to 800,000 new residents to accommodate workers at its port.

Despite this unimaginable scale, cities all over the world face similar challenges: we have to deal with garbage, maintain the roads, provide public transit and build spaces for our citizens. For me, it was fascinating to see how those cities have dealt with this growth. While we won't have a Maglev train to the airport (430 km/h) anytime soon, there were lessons learned and I look forward to applying them.

Now to get over my jet lag. . .

- Mayor Naheed Nenshi