Your
Excellencies and Delegates.
It’s
very encouraging to see the depth of your
interest in Asia-Pacific. The numbers
are hard to ignore:
·
If we shrink the earth's population down
to a village of one hundred persons but
keep all existing human ratios the same,
there would be 57 Asians, 21 Europeans,
14 people from the Western Hemisphere
(North and South America), and 8 Africans.
·
In 1960, Asia’s share of the world’s
gross national product was 4%. Today it’s
over 30%!
Global
Village
It is appropriate
that "the global village" metaphor
was coined by a Canadian, Marshall McLuhan.
I like to think that we are the Phoenicians
of the 21st century: one in three jobs
and about 45% of our economy already depend
on trade.
Our increasing
dependence on trade probably led to this
year’s theme: “Asia-Pacific
Community and North American Integration:
Competing Visions?” Like many of
you, I am opposed to the notion that our
global relationships need to be viewed
as “either/or” equations. To
assume trade is a zero sum game is to
take a very narrow view of our role as
an honest broker in the world, which so
many non-Canadians here spoke about yesterday.
There’s no doubt that the U.S. represents
our single most important relationship.
No serious Canadian needs to defend the
proposition that selling more goods/services
to our two closest neighbours (Mexico
and the U.S.) has been immensely helpful
to our development as an economy in the
creation of numerous good jobs for all
three nations.
With an
overwhelming part of our trade now done
within North America, it’s easy to
look at Asia-Pacific trade and investment
statistics and conclude that the region
is not important to us - either economically
or politically. The truth is that Asia-Pacific
matters enormously. If recent trade disputes
such as softwood lumber have taught us
anything, as we heard yesterday from Michael
Phelps, it is the value of export diversification.
Wood frame housing is badly needed in
China and Japan, for example, and who
better to supply it than Canadians? Asia’s
alternative currencies, vast market size,
relative stability, and diversity of needs
make it an ideal target for Canadian investment,
trade, and honest broker skills.
Canada
Asia Review
That said,
our focus here is Asia-Pacific. Our host’s
important ‘2002 Canada Asia Review’
awarded a somewhat disheartening “C
+” composite grade. Canada has made
significant progress in many areas - and
I’m proud of our accomplishments
- but I’ll be the first to admit
that we have much work to do in others.
Permit me to address some elements of
the report.
Outward
Investment
In ‘Outward
Investment’, our grade improved in
2002. The report notes that the strong
flow of Canadian capital to Asia continued
last year, but the 15% rise still leaves
Asia’s share of total Canadian investment
at levels lower than a decade ago. In
my view, our problems here lie primarily
with Canadian perceptions of the Asia-Pacific
region. Burned by the “Asian Flu”
of ‘97-’98, many Canadians unfortunately
continue to view the region as economically
unstable.
Some Canadians
also view Southeast Asia as a haven for
terrorists. Publicity since 9/11 and the
recent Bali bombings has certainly been
less than favourable. Front page stories
on terrorism on the cover of a popular
weekly magazine exclaiming, “Indonesia:
The Weakest Link”, aren’t good
for business.
Accounts
tying various nations in the region to
major terrorist networks make for bad
PR. In reality, Southeast Asia is a region
of relative economic stability and enormous
potential. Most Asian governments have
taken strong strides to condemn terrorist
attacks and fight terrorism. Canadians
generally need to know this.
The Foundation
report identifies an “information
gap”; firms already in Asia with
direct access to their own sources of
information are confident enough of the
business climate to increase their holdings.
Those that rely on second-hand sources
of information - such as media or consultants
based in Canada - show little interest.
We all
need to work harder at getting firms already
in Asia-Pacific in contact with other
Canadians; we need to do a better job
of marketing. Often overlooked, for example,
is the emergence of a growing, educated
middle-class with real consumer spending
power - ideal targets for Canadian services
and products!
Media Coverage
Canadian perceptions of Asia-Pacific will
be broadly affected by our news sources
which cover events other than terrorist
attacks.
The report
mentions that The Globe and Mail in Beijing
and the Toronto Star in Hong Kong are
the only print media to maintain permanent
staff in Asia. CBC/Radio Canada and CTV
have bureaus in Beijing, while the CBC
has a part-time correspondent based in
Bangkok. Even in Japan, Canada’s
second largest trading partner and the
second-largest economy in the world, Canada
is not represented among the approximately
450 foreign journalists based there. We
cannot expect our media to devote resources
to issues that simply aren’t of interest
to the majority of Canadians, but is that
not a chicken/egg situation? The stationing
in Asia of more writers for Canadian media
would be a major step forward in rebuilding
knowledge and interest in the region.
Inward
Investment
The report describes inward investment
as “one bright spot of the year”,
partly because of government efforts in
the 1990's to make Canada an attractive
investment destination. In my opinion,
much of why we aren’t reaching our
inward investment potential lies in the
widespread perception of Canada as a travel
destination as opposed to a business partner.
This has been reinforced time and again
during my travels around the region.
Internationally,
many see Canada as a vast unspoiled wilderness.
That's great if you run an eco-tourism
business in the Okanagan, but it's not
so good if you're trying to interest potential
partners in supporting your high-tech
start-up. The point, of course, is that
Canada encompasses both realities.
We recognize
that we have an image problem in some
areas. What do we do about it? What do
we want to tell Asia-Pacific about Canada?
First, we’re ‘open for business’
- and we’re an attractive, worthy
partner. We have enjoyed ten years of
low inflation. We are the only G7 country
with a balanced budget this year, our
fifth in a row. We are enjoying the longest
period of uninterrupted growth in 30 years,
and the economy seems to be actually strengthening
despite all the background noise as we
move into 2003.
The IMF
and OECD both predict that Canada will
lead the G7 in growth this year and again
next. According to the OECD, Canada has
the lowest regulatory barriers to entrepreneurship
among member countries, with the exception
of the U.K.
A major
study by KPMG identified Canada as the
most affordable nation in the industrialized
world in which to do business. Compared
to all other G7 countries, Austria and
the Netherlands, Canada placed first in
7 out of 12 industry sectors, including
promising areas such as electronics assembly,
biomedical research and development, specialty
chemicals, and advanced software.
We are
reportedly the most affordable place to
do business in the industrialized world.
We must take this message to foreign investors.
So, we’re
open for business. But business with whom?
In what? Whom are we trying to attract?
While never
ignoring key commodities and raw materials
markets, we must change the perception
of Canada as only a source of raw lumber,
metals or wheat. We have to show the peoples
of Asia-Pacific that while those sectors
remain very important, our dynamism and
innovation in information technology,
aerospace, biotechnology and other knowledge-based
industries are now equally representative
of the Canadian present and future.
Trade
The continuing challenges just outlined
are reflected in our overall trade performance.
While economies on both sides of the Pacific
slowed, the report indicates that Canada
continued to lose market share in Asia.
Why? Reasons suggested include an over-reliance
on the U.S. export market, problems with
investor confidence, inadequate access
to market information, and an absence
of formally negotiated trade agreements
(about which we heard much yesterday afternoon).
On a positive
note, I’m pleased to report that
our effort to help developing nations
to help themselves through capacity building
for trade are described as one of our
most notable achievements. Africa has
received much of the attention in this
area, but Bangladesh, for example, is
set to benefit from such moves as Canada’s
lifting of tariffs/quotas on products
from the world’s 47 Least Developed
Countries (LDCs).
Education
Another
way of harnessing the potential of globalization
and building fulfilled lives is through
education. As more students look abroad
to meet their education needs, our colleges,
universities, technical institutes and
language schools are well-situated. Canada
offers what most other countries cannot:
an exceptionally high quality of education
in a safe, diverse environment, at a relatively
inexpensive cost.
Asia is
by far our most important market in a
sector that already contributes an estimated
$4billion per year to our economy. In
Asia, we are holding our own. Student authorizations
are up in our two biggest
markets of China and South Korea.
Challenges,
as we all know, remain. Co-ordination
among institutions, and different departments
in the federal/provincial governments
is often slow in coming. That said, I'm
very pleased that the next meeting of
the Education Marketing Advisory Board
(or EMAB) is planned for early December.
Security
Relations
None of us anywhere can feel fully secure
in the post-9/11 world; nor can we responsibly
give up one square centimetre to terrorism.
According to a family member of mine working
in Southeast Asia, it was probably not
until the Bali tragedy that some residents
of the region really understood the significance
of 9/11 in North America. Now, we all
understand that no mega-city or village
anywhere is really safe from al-Qaida
and its supporters. All of us understand
that the real goal of terrorism, aside
from murdering as many civilians as possible,
is to reduce confidence in democratic
governments and to divide us by faiths.
Open societies
in full cooperation must use every legitimate
means to make ourselves harder targets.
Simultaneously, we must promote the many
values related to human dignity we all
cherish. Protecting human rights, including
non-violent dissent and demonstrations
are, of course, included. Each Canadian,
including our governments at every level,
must, for example, do everything feasible
to ensure that no one is singled out for
their religion or place of origin.
In one
of the books published in Canada about
9/11, Canada and September 11th: Impacts
and Responses, we 25 or so contributors
all concluded that most Canadians have
decided not to abandon our national values
of diversity and inclusion, but to embrace
them even more tightly. Another recently-published
book, Canada: The Best Country: Why Canada
will Lead the Way in the Future, by Satya
Das takes a similar view.
The combat
role of our troops in Afghanistan was favoured, I think, by a large majority
of Canadians despite the tragic loss of
four soldiers. Certainly, the Afghani
Foreign Minister and the representatives
of the country’s NGOs I met this
week in Seoul (whose presence Canada funded)
seemed grateful for Canada’s role
in liberating their country.
“Coalitions
of the willing”, to use Ambassador
Owada’s term, must also do far more
to reduce world poverty, the persecution
- usually by governments - of minority
communities and dissenting individuals,
and inter-community conflicts.
President
Kim Dae-Jung
Permit me to quote President Kim Dae-jung
of South Korea, a Nobel Peace Laureate,
at the opening of the Second Ministerial
Conference of the Community of Democracies
earlier this week:
“Poverty
lies at the root of the friction and disputes
among religions, nations, and cultures.
Zealots have manipulated despair and danger
resulting from poverty into religious
and racial issues to incite terrorism
and unrest.”
Many of
you will know that President Kim has paid
a high price for his life-long democratic
convictions. There have been several attempts
on his life and he still walks with a
limp from beatings he received in the
1970s.
It is perhaps
not surprising then that our host also
told us that the greatest achievement
of the 20th century was helping democracy
to take root and spread across the planet.
He noted, “Out of 200-odd countries
in the world, 140 have adopted a multi-party
system. This is significant progress,
considering the feat that only about 30
countries were rated as democracies up
until the mid-70s.”
President
Kim went on to say that in his mind democracy
is necessary to achieve a “transparent,
fair and viable market economy. It was
precisely because of the failure to establish
a democratic market economic system that
the Korean economy, which flourished under
authoritarian rule, became mired in serious
crisis in 1998. Thereafter, Korea launched
a reform drive to promote a market economy
in parallel with democracy, thereby overcoming
the crisis in only two years and leading
to the success of today.”
By the
way, it might surprise some of you to
learn that a study released by the Democracy
Coalition Project at the conference indicated
that among the 40 democracies assessed
for their record in defending democracy
through their foreign policy, the three
which received the strongest rating were
Canada, the Netherlands, and Sweden. Asia-Pacific
nations which received a good or fair
rating in the study were Australia, Chile,
Korea, the U.S., India, Japan, Mexico,
the Philippines and Thailand.
Projection
of Canadian Values
Now a word
on the subject I am most passionate about
- the Projection of Canadian Values.
Having
just returned from the Conference in South
Korea, I’m filled with renewed vigour
to project Canadian values of respect
for human rights, peaceful dissent, equal
opportunity for all and the absolute sanctity
of the rule of law. A judge friend of
mine thinks that the rule of law should
be our most cherished export. Canadians
expect us to continue to stand up for
these values; our efforts in the areas
of human security, human rights advocacy,
development assistance, and international
initiatives, such as the International
Criminal Court, must be unyielding.
Democracy
is not a just a Western concept. The opportunities
it creates for people around the world
to live fulfilled lives are obvious. I
hope the day will soon come when all Asia-Pacific
nations can be listed in the democratic
column.
Conclusions
Finally, a word about Tom Axworthy’s
stirring address last night about a new
“coalition of the willing” to
work in Asia-Pacific and elsewhere in
common purpose towards a world where international
norms and the rule of law can flourish.
He based his proposal in part on points
made by participants in our afternoon
session. We gave him a standing ovation,
in large part, I think, to show our support
from many corners of Asia-Pacific for
his proposal.
The 20th
anniversary of the Asia-Pacific Foundation’s
creation by a unanimously passed Act of
Parliament is approaching in only two
years. All of us must find a way between
now and 2004 to reinvigorate the excellent
work of the Foundation so that future
generations of Canadians will know just
how inter-dependent our country and the
other nations of Asia-Pacific are to each
other.
Thank you.
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