国内英语新闻:Ottawa Mayor confident about the Sino-Canadian cooperation prospects

OTTAWA, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Larry O'Brien, Mayor of Canada's capital city of Ottawa, said that the achievement of his trip to China had exceeded his expectation, and the cooperation between China and Canada had a broad prospects.

In an exclusive interview with Xinhua in his office in Ottawa after a journey to China accompanied by a business mission during April 6 to 16, O'Brien said that the trip, which was the first foreign mission since he took office as a Mayor of Ottawa in 2006, was productive and delighting.

O'Brien visited Beijing, Chongqing, Shenzhen and Hong Kong during his trip in China, signing a Memorandum of Understanding ( MOU) on continuing cooperation between Ottawa and Beijing, and attending the signing ceremony of the Cooperation Agreement between Ocri and Beijing Investment Promotion Bureau.

In the meantime, Ottawa Tourism and Beijing Badaling special zone's office signed MOU of Cooperation between Badaling Great Wall in Beijing and the Rideau Canal in Ottawa. And Canada's Plasco Energy Group Inc. and Beijing Environmental Sanitation Engineering Group Co (BESG) also signed a MOU to establish facilities in Beijing to convert waste to clean energy.

O'Brien noted that Plasco's signing MOU with BESG exceeded his expectation, and he was impressed by the quick research speed and by their ability to sign the document during this visit. He said it was "a present and a surprise," and "a good achievement for our trip."

"It underscores the importance of having government and industry working together, to create a better bond between the city of Beijing and the city of Ottawa," he added.

Talking about the MOU in tourism, O'Brien said: "Rideau Canal in Ottawa, which is built in 1826-1832, is really worthwell. ( Tourists coming here) will feel the warmth of 900,000 warm Canadian hearts, warm Ottawa hearts. We are going to promote the Great Wall as well, which I had the honor and distinguish pleasure to go and visit this time."

He also said that China had set Canada, where has a lot of places worth to see besides Ottawa, such as the mountains, the west coast, and the sea villages on the east coast, as the destination for tourists. "I am hoping that more Chinese to take this opportunity to move over to see how we live in Canada."

In Shenzhen, O'Brien visited Huawei Technologies' research and development plant, welcoming it to invest in Ottawa. "Ottawa is a good place to do business. We have wonderfully clean and safe environment, with half of our population received college education or greater. Huawei has 70 to 80 people in Ottawa now, and expect to increase to 250 in three years," he said. And he also warmly welcomed other Chinese companies to establish research and development facilities in Ottawa.

"Due to the warm of the reception and the success we enjoyed during the trip, vast majority of our counselors and the citizens of Ottawa were very happy (with the achievement), and gave very positive comments on it," he said.

He also said: "I think everybody on this trip had their eyes opened on the size of the market in China, found the opportunities to follow up, and the pace of being able to capture market opportunities."

"In order to create trade and opportunities, you must have communications and trusts. Every long and wonderful journey starts with a single step. I would like to encourage our clean technique companies to begin this step," he added.

O'Brien believed that the entire developing world was one third of the world economy 15 years ago. And now, Asia is half of the world economy, and will be 65 percent of that after 10 to 15 years. "We hope to participate in its economic development, especially to play a role in supporting the market growth in both China and India."

"Fast forward to 2010, this is a brand new China. I am confident that there will be more mutually beneficial business arrangements. Already China has invested 10 billion U. S. dollars in the last 18 months in Canada in oil and minerals. I perceive this as the beginning of another series of cross fertilizations between our economies, and between our cultures. And I came away from the trip with great optimism for the future," he concluded.