Canadian PM to Strengthen Relations with China

By staff reporter ZHOU LIN

CANADIAN Prime Minister Trudeau spoke in an interview with CCTV NEWS during the G20 Hangzhou Summit about Canada's reasons for joining the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), as the first North American country to do so, and what China and Canada can do together in the future.

Trudeau said that though the China-Canada relationship has historically been very strong there is still much to do. This is not just in regard to the economic opportunities, Canada just having signed a deal with Alibaba for the Canada Pavilion on Tmall, which he expects to give hundreds of millions of Chinese middle-income consumer’s access to great quality Canadian products, but also to people-to-people ties between the two nations.

When talking about why Canada has become the first North American country to apply for AIIB membership, Trudeau said that Canada has the expertise to build high quality infrastructure in China, across Asia, and around the world. Canada hence wants to join the excellent AIIB initiative led by China because it provides opportunities not just for citizens of China, but also for citizens of Asia as a whole to obtain access to good infrastructure.

"We know that the AIIB creates good jobs in the short term and leads to productivity gains and growth in a long term," Trudeau said.

When asked what China and Canada can do together and his judgment of the G20, Trudeau said that China's hosting of the G20 Hangzhou Summit was a great success. He added that Canada was closely involved in creating the G20 back in the 1990s.

"The reason why we need the G20 is not just the G7 but because we need China to be involved in discussions of the global economy. This is the main thing, and the priorities that President Xi raised as regards inclusive growth, innovation, investment in the future, and opportunities for everyone are in fact also deeply important to Canada.

"We have to create a world in which people have the chance to succeed. And that is what China has proved itself to have done over the past few decades by lifting 700 million people out of poverty and adding more people to the global middle class," Trudeau said.