The Canada China Business Council promotes trade and investment between the two nations through programs and events that disseminate market insight and information.
A private, nonprofit, membership-based organization, the Canada China Business Council (CCBC) was incorporated in 1978 to promote and assist in trade and investment between Canada and China. It has become a preeminent authority on China-Canadian trade.
CCBC has approximately three hundred members that include large Canadian and Chinese firms in addition to small and midsized entrepreneurs from both countries. Membership is about equally divided between companies and individual members that represent a variety of sectors, including financial services, legal services, information and communications technology, education, manufacturing, construction, transportation, mining, and energy.
The council acts as a Canadian chamber of commerce in China, providing business networking opportunities and advocating on behalf of the business community. Headquartered in Toronto, it also has offices in Vancouver, Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Shenyang, Chengdu, and Shenzhen. Through this network, the CCBC gathers market information and connects its members to opportunities in many of China’s emerging regions. In addition, the CCBC also operates chapters in Beijing and Shanghai. Established in the 1990s, these chapters sponsor events such as networking functions, seminars, and roundtable discussions for Chinese and Canadian business people, allowing for the establishment of a broad communication forum within China and Canada.
To facilitate trade and investment between the two nations, the council institutes programs and events that disseminate market insight and information, support business and logistics services, and uncover leads for business opportunities in Canada and China. Along with the CCBC’s annual general meeting, these functions are forums for bilateral interchange and are attended by both Canadian and Chinese business and government leaders.
The council is the largest Sino-Canadian business association, with a board of directors that includes former Canadian ambassador to China Howard Balloch and three top officials of Power Corporation of Canada, including the presidents and CEOs of its financial services division and technology investment divisions. The council has thirty directors.
For much of the twentieth century, the Chinese were the largest visible minority in Canada, and this has remained true in the first decade of the twenty-first century. According to Statistics Canada, a department of the Canadian government, 16 percent of all immigrants to Canada came from China from 2002 to 2004. Currently there are approximately 1 million Chinese immigrants in Canada, and the majority reside in Ontario and British Columbia—the home provinces of Toronto and Vancouver, respectively, and locations of CCBC’s two Canadian offices.
Chinese Immigration to Canada
In the early twentieth century, Canada passed numerous laws restricting and even preventing Chinese immigration. Some of the laws, like the one below, explain the Head Tax placed on Chinese immigrants to Canada.
TAX AND EXEMPTIONS
7. Every person of Chinese origin, irrespective of allegiance, shall pay into the Consolidated Revenue Fund of Canada, on entering Canada, at the port or place of entry, a tax of five hundred dollars, except the following persons who shall be exempt from such payment, that is to say: —
(a) The members of the diplomatic corps, or other government representatives, their suites and their servants, and consuls and consular agents;
(b) The children born in Canada of parents of Chinese origin and who have left Canada for educational or other purposes, on substantiating their identity to the satisfaction of the controller at the port or place where they seek to enter on their return;
(c) Merchants, their wives and children, the wives and children of clergymen, tourists, men of science and students, who shall substantiate their statues to the satisfaction of the controller, subject to the approval of the Minister, or who are bearers of certificates of identity, or other similar documents issued by the government or by a recognized official or representative of the government who subject they are, specifying their occupation and their object in coming into Canada.
Source: The Chinese Immigration Act, 3 E. VII., c. 8, s. 1.. (1907.). In The Revised Statutes of Canada, 1906. Ottawa: pp. 1735–1742. Retrieved March 9, 2009, from http://books.google.com/books?id=rOUuAAAAIAAJ&pg=RA1-PA1735&dq=Canada+Chinese+Immigration+Act,&lr=&as_brr=3#PPA889,M1
Further Reading
Canada China Business Council. (2008). Retrieved September 16, 2008, from http://www.ccbc.com/
Power Corporation of Canada. (2008). Retrieved September 16, 2008, from http://www.powercorp.com/
Reuters Financial: Power Corp of Canada. (2008). Retrieved September 16, 2008, from http://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=POW.TO
Statistics Canada Demography Division. (2006, June). Report on the Demographic Situation in Canada 2003–04. Retrieved on February 18, 2009, from http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/91-209-x/91-209-x2003000-eng.pdf
Source: The Editors (2009). Canada China Business Council. In Linsun Cheng, et al. (Eds.), Berkshire Encyclopedia of China, pp. 265–266. Great Barrington, MA: Berkshire Publishing.
Canada China Business Council (Ji?-Zh?ng Màoyì L?shìhuì ???????)|Ji?-Zh?ng Màoyì L?shìhuì ??????? (Canada China Business Council)
