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Discover the Innovative Spirit of Canada

Remarks By The Hon. David Kilgour

Secretary of State (Asia-Pacific) and M.P. for Edmonton Southeast

To The Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Korea

Seoul, South Korea
August 7, 2002

*Check Against Delivery

Members of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Korea, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. It is a great pleasure to be in Seoul today.

What a city! Everything vibrates, stimulates curiosity, interest, and business. Thank you for this opportunity to speak about Canada and our 21st century global economy.

Je suis très heureux d’être parmi vous aujourd’hui à Séoul, une ville fascinante et vibrante, une ville qui fourmille–

Before doing that, I want to praise the work that your organisation, the CCCK - Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Korea - has accomplished. This is a strong organization which should be a model for other countries. The revenues you have been able to earn are remarkable and have allowed you to staff an office with a very competent and proactive team which offers an impressive range of services to the community. I want to especially recognise the effectiveness, the vision and the leadership of Joan Baron. Congratulations, Joan!

Let me now turn to a message about Canada.

We now how others see us. They think of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, snow-capped mountains and winter. A big, peaceful country with friendly people and an abundance of natural resources. This is but one feature of the Canadian reality. There is so much more to the Canadian people and our economy … so today I invite you to discover the “Innovative Spirit of Canada.”

I won’t bore you with economic growth data, but instead will tell you why Canada’s performance has been strong among the G-8 countries. We can clearly relate them to the new economy of Canada, and you in Korea know what I am talking about. You business people know the importance of innovation for success.

Specifically, I’ll mention three strong sectors of enabling technology in Canada: those that have made a difference for our economic development and our quality of life. I’ll also touch on and the strong support the Government of Canada has committed to its success. You will see how close Korea’s and Canada’s visions are on the innovation agenda.

Telecommunications

Let’s start with some of our achievements in the telecommunications sector. Canada is a huge country and an early priority was to enable Canadians to communicate with one another and then to connect. And we have done just that, very much like you!!

¨ A look back at the history books shows a long history of Canadian technological advances:

¨ In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell successfully made the first telephone call from his Ontario lab.

¨ In 1901, Marconi received the first transatlantic wireless message in St John’s Newfoundland.

¨ Fast forward a few decades to 1972, when Canadian scientists and engineers launched the first telecommunication satellite into orbit: the famous Anik A.

¨ Jumping to the present, it becomes apparent that Canadian innovators are not content to sit on their laurels.

The business people in this room want things to move fast! The high-speed network is your connection around the world. So let me ask you a question: Just how fast is “high-speed”? I’m told that with a bandwidth greater than any commercial Internet link, Canada’s CA*net 3 can download the entire two-and-a-half-hour movie Titanic in one-fifth of a second, the fastest in the world!

I am told that you are very fast in Korea too and we have serious competition! But I am here to talk about Canada and invite you, as business people, to make the link where you see the fit.

Health

Let me now turn to another sector that is a priority for a better quality of life for Canadians-health and the impressive medical discoveries of Canadian scientists, especially in the biotechnology sector. In spite of our relatively small population (30 million people), our biotechnology industry compares very well with those of larger nations. Canada is second to the US in terms of the number of companies … third in revenues, after the US and the UK … and first in R&D intensity per employee.

Let me touch on some of our discoveries in Canada:

¨ Did you know who discovered insulin for the treatment of diabetes in 1921? Well, two fellows: Banting and Best. This is still the only treatment today. Still for diabetic patients, a remarkable tool to administer insulin, the Islet-cell transplantation, was discovered at the University of Alberta (called the Edmonton Protocol). As an Albertan I am proud of this discovery in the city, part of whose residents I have the honour of representing in our House of Commons.

¨ Lets turn to HIV/AIDS. The highly creative work in the 1980s by Dr. Bernard Belleau’s group at McGill University in Montreal led to the discovery of 3TC (lamivudine), a medication which presently plays a key role in the therapy of AIDS. In 1986 Dr. Belleau was instrumental in the founding of BioChem Pharma Inc., one of Canada’s most successful producers of new pharmaceuticals.

¨ Then there’s cystic fibrosis – a genetic disease and another difficult medical problem. The battle against the disease made a considerable leap forward when Dr. Lap-Chee Tsui at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children discovered the defective gene in 1989.

¨ As for the human immune system, Dr. Tak Mak in Toronto is world famous for the discovery of the T-Cell receptor.

¨ With Alzheimer’s, Dr. Judes Poirier of McGill University has identified the link between Alzheimer’s and the apolipoprotein E. Also important is the work by Dr. Peter St. George-Hyslop at University of Toronto on the successful immunization of mice against Alzheimer

This list is long but worth noting, as these are areas where we need to work together, no matter where we live. Just one more word on cancer research. Canadian researchers have made major inroads, but I’ll only name a few: the co-discovery of photodynamic anti-cancer drugs by Dr. Julia Levy of University of British Columbia, and the development by Dr. Patrick Lee at University of Calgary of a reovirus as a potential treatment.

The Canadian Government has provided much support for the work of our researchers in this sector. For example, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), launched in 2000, with an annual budget of $552 million, provides federal funding to health research through virtual institutes linking organizations in 13 key research areas. These areas include circulatory and respiratory health, cancer, genetics, neurosciences, mental health and addiction, musculoskeletal health and arthritis, and infection and immunity.

Then there’s Genome Canada, with its $620 million budget just for genomics and proteomics - a model that others in the world are copying! Genome Canada has signed agreements with a number of international organizations around the world. Perhaps it should also be explored with you.

We even have a Nobel prize winner in Canada for the work done in genomics. In 1993, Dr. Michael Smith won the Nobel prize in chemistry for the 1976 discovery of a specific mutation of the DNA in an organism.

Advanced Materials

The third sector where Canada has been very successful advanced materials. Our rough climate has compelled us to discover new ways of building ice-breakers and avoiding corrosion under our bridges! Just a few examples:

¨ Optics, Photonics: Dr. Michael Brett of the University of Alberta has pioneered the development of a micromachined threshold accelerometer, a micromachined peltier cooler, and Glancing Angle Deposition (GLAD) for engineering porous thin film microstructure on a nanometer scale.

¨ Microfluids: Dr. Jed Harrison at the University of Alberta was the first to use fluorscene detection within the microfludic chip format

¨ Sensors, Acutators, MEMS Devices: Dr. Sandy Robinson at the University of Alberta and Dr. Ash Parameswaran jointly pioneered post-processing of standard CMOS devices to form MEMS devices. I Stat Corporation was one of the first companies to bring high volume microfabricated MEMS biochemical sensors.

Government Support

There is strong support for R&D and a commitment from various governments:

¨ the National Institute for Nanotechnology: an NRC Institute being built as we speak, and a $120 Million joint initiative by the governments of Canada and Alberta

¨ Nano-Quebec: a nanotechnology initiative by the Government of Quebec

¨ the creation of a new nanotechnology laboratory within the Quebec National Institute for Scientific Research

¨ the appointment of a research director for Nano Innovation Platform by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council

¨ the creation of an Innovation Centre for research and development on Fuel Cell technologies – The Centre is also one of the institutes of the National Research Council Canada

A Changing World

The world, ladies and gentlemen, is changing. We are all in the midst of a massive shift in the way we communicate with one another, the way we think in terms of quality of life and the way we build things.
ICTs and the other technologies I have just spoken about are reshaping our political and economic reality and changing the way we do business and live. Technologies converge and new markets emerge. The world over, old monopolies and state-owned enterprises are giving way to competition and new efficiencies. Trade barriers are being eliminated and global trade integration and free trade zones are a reality. Industry is rapidly re-structuring and consolidating in many key areas.

Wireless communication is changing lives around the world, not to mention business. In some countries, penetration of wireless telephones and devices has risen above 90% of the total population. In less than a decade, the Internet has created a new digital global village. In the coming years, wireless Internet promises yet another dramatic leap forward.

ICT is really the force behind a tidal wave of growth, change and economic potential that is unmatched in history. And where does Canada fit in all of that? The answer is: everywhere.

Today, despite the difficult times the whole high tech industry is currently facing, the Canadian industry still attracts the attention of investors all over the world. Canadian telecommunications, biotech and advanced materials companies regularly form strategic alliances with international firms to increase distribution and foster new product development. Our regulatory environment makes it easy for Canadian businesses and their international partners to move innovative new products and services into the marketplace. Canadian companies already benefit from one of the world’s best communications infrastructure. But investment in Canada offers even more — access to the most advanced development networks anywhere.

Our government is playing an active role to ensure our high technology industry will take advantage of these new realities. Our government will continue to play an active part in Canada’s strong innovative environment. We are encouraging real competition in all markets, continuing deregulation, and investing in the research capacity of Canadian universities and government laboratories and institutions.

Some examples:

¨ The Canadian Foundation for Innovation will distribute C$10 billion by the end of this decade to fund innovative research in institutions across the country.

¨ 2,000 Canada Research Chairs have been created - part of an overall ($4.1 billion) investment by the Government of Canada to promote leading -edge research and innovation in universities, research hospitals and the private sector.

This continuing commitment to innovation has lead to real successes:

¨ 75% of North America’s Internet traffic is carried on Canadian products.

¨ RIM’s remarkable BLACKBERRY, which enables almost constant Internet access, is proudly a Canadian product.

¨ Finally, if you have been to the movies lately, you may have seen Spiderman, Titanic, Gladiator or the Lord of the Rings. If so, you’ve already experienced Canadian multimedia magic in action. In Hollywood and elsewhere, Canada dominates the special effects and animation market. According to Wired magazine, more than 80% of the world’s animation and special effects software is Canadian.

This all creates world leaders.

Canadian businesses have been the real engine of our success in all three sectors. Some of them, such as those listed on the screen, are world leaders.

As you read their names on the screen, I will touch on a final key point for innovation. This is the responsibility of all of us. The financing of this research has to be shared by all players, including the private sector where venture capital and private equity play a key role in our two countries. The current climate for venture capital is more difficult these days, but still very supportive in these three sectors in Canada. Foreign investors are looking at Canadian technologies. I hope many Korean investors will participate too.

Finally, let me conclude with a few words on the importance of Korea-Canada relations.

Year 2002: Just last month, your Ministry of Science & Technology signed a Canada-Korea Science & Technology Arrangement with the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs & International Trade, the purpose being to promote science and technology co-operation between our two countries. As you can see from my presentation, there is a lot in common between Canada’s Innovation Agenda and Korea’s Vision 2025

Year 2003: the first year in the mandate of a new Korean President … the fiftieth anniversary of the armistice that ended the Korean war (a result of which over 500 Canadians gave their lives) … and the fortieth anniversary of diplomatic relations between Canada and Korea.

Let me close by saying that, with 21,000 students from Korea in Canadian universities, and the commitment to innovation that we both share, we can look forward to vast opportunities for closer relations between Korea and Canada in the years to come. These young students of today will be the business leaders of tomorrow, and they will do it with their Canadian Blackberry in hand!

Thank you again for your attention. Merci.

 
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