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More Important Participating than Winning

Autumn Annual Golf Cup 2006

On October 20, the Autumn Annual Golf Cup 2006 hosted by Canada China Business Council (CCBC) was held at Beijing Grand Canal Golf Club in Tongzhou District in Beijing. Forty-two players from CCBC’s membership and their clients participated in the event.

Ma Zhiping, vice-director of the information department of the China Banking Association, and Jeff Peron, a financial consultant with KPMG in Beijing, won top honours in the championship.

The Autumn Annual Golf Cup began in 1998 to promote communication between Chinese and Canadian companies, business associations and governmental institutions.

Zhu Cheng, an official with CCBC’s Beijing Chapter, said, “The aim of this activity to provide our members with a platform to communicate with each other.

 “Golf itself is a very casual and relaxing sport, during which the players can talk with each other and make new friends in an open and natural atmosphere.”

The players said the host’s agenda gave them a good chance to enjoy a round of golf and meet new friends, even though, “You may not necessarily get a contract right away,” said Ma Yaoji, a Xinhua PR Newswire senior account manager.

Winners were announced and prizes were awarded during a buffet dinner following the contest to the cheers of their friends and other participants.

Ma said, “Thanks to this event hosted by CCBC, I understand companies from Canada have good will toward China, and huge business potential exists between us.”

Founded in 1978 by a group of Canadian and Chinese business people, the CCBC is a private, membership-based association that promotes trade and investment between Canada and China.

CCBC members come from small to large companies in both Canada and China. Members provide financial and legal services, information and communications technologies, education, manufacturing, construction, transportation, mining and energy products or services. With more than 300 member companies, the CCBC has a small but growing membership of Chinese companies such as China Broadband Corporation and China Minmetals Corporation.

When Chinese people hear the word Jianada (加拿大), two images immediately come to mind. For the older generation, there is the famed physician Norman Bethune, who helped care for injured Chinese soldiers during the 1930s; for the younger generation, there is Da Shan (大山), whose Mandarin language skills are the envy of every other foreigner living in China.

Aside from these two celebrities, many common people in China know Canada a country with long-standing ties with China that go beyond the obvious, and as a country that has engaged in frequent consultations and coordination on hot issues such as terrorism combat, arms control and nuclear non-proliferation since the two countries forged a comprehensive partnership in 1997.

With improved political and diplomatic cooperation, the two countries have enhanced their trade and economic ties.

The two countries have highly complementary economies: Canada is rich in natural resources and China has a rapidly growing economy that can use them.

Two-way trade between the two countries totalled US$16 billion in 2004, increasing by almost 100 times since 1970. China is now Canada’s second-largest trading partner, while Canada, with one of the largest Chinese immigrant populations in the world, ranks the 10th among China’s trading partners. The two countries aspire to double their trade by 2010.