Less reliant on U.S. | The government wants to promote value-added agriculture and open doors to partnerships
Saskatchewan should triple its exports to Asia by 2020, says a report presented to premier Brad Wall Sept. 30.
The eight-member Saskatchewan-Asia Advisory Council released 45 recommendations as part of its mandate to advise the province on how best to meet trade expansion goals.
In 2013, Saskatchewan exported a record $6.6 billion of products to Asia.
However, the council said there is still a lot of untapped potential in the region.
Agricultural products are a significant part of the current trade. One recommendation is to increase the value-added sector at home to position Saskatchewan as a leader in food security and innovation and attract more investment from Asia.
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The council said the Saskatchewan Food Industry Development Centre and similar facilities should be enhanced to increase value-added capacity.
It said the government should “fully understand” the impact of its current municipal tax rates, fees, levies and regulatory burdens on competitiveness and aim to be the best at attracting investment.
Council co-chair Grant Kook said Asian companies open up trade opportunities when they invest in Saskatchewan.
“The best way to interact and increase trade for small and medium sized businesses in Saskatchewan, which we know has to become less dependent on the United States in terms of broadening our export sales, is about the doors that they’d open in terms of moving commodities,” Kook said at a news conference.
“And the quickest way to do that is to have them invest in your company because then they have extreme alignment and motivation to find those buyers of our products in Asian countries, which we know is growing exponentially.”
Wall noted companies such as Agrocorp International of Singapore, which built a plant in Moose Jaw after a trade trip by Saskatchewan officials.
He said he has asked the agriculture minister and officials to be on the lookout for similar opportunities.
“We want to improve our presence sort of upstream on the value-added part of agriculture,” Wall said.
It isn’t good enough to ask others to come and invest, he added. They need specific details about opportunities.
The council also recommended identifying and developing project proposals for at least 10 major investment opportunities, increasing Asian awareness in Saskatchewan schools and better promoting immigrant populations and their contributions.
The premier said the government will issue a more formal response to the recommendations within four months.
