bout de papier, Vol. 14, No. 2 (1997) — Summer 1997 // Été 1997, pp. 23–26

bdp: What are the basic objectives of Canada’s Year of Asia Pacific (CYAP)?

Bell: Speaking in Vancouver last January, Prime Minister Chrétien explained very clearly the rationale behind CYAP: “Canada knows that Asia Pacific is the future.” Throughout 1997, business forums, youth events, and cultural activities will prepare Canada for that future. We want Canadians to understand that when people talk of the coming “Pacific century” ’, they are talking about opportunities for Canadians. Canada is a Pacific nation!

We need Canada’s Year of Asia Pacific to build human links between Canadians and the various peoples of the region — links strong enough to sustain the weight of our growing economic interests. Links that allow us to contribute to the social and political development of the region. Links that reflect the shifts in population that have changed the face of Canada over the last twenty years. Bdp: Could you elaborate on the shifts in population that have occurred in the last twenty years?

Bell: In 1955, 85% of the immigrants coming into Canada were from Europe. In 1996, 62% came from Asia. We have a growing Asian population, currently numbering about two million. In fact, four of Canada’s top five sources of business immigrants are from Asia. The Asia Pacific Foundation has called Asian Canadians our “Hidden Advantage”. The knowledge, cultural understanding, and business contacts of Asian Canadians are an important human resource to the economy of Canada — a resource so far left largely untapped. Canada’s Year of Asia Pacific aims to change that. Bdp: Would you describe some of the key activities?

Bell: The Year began when Prime Minister Chrétien departed with Team Canada this January to the Philippines, Korea, and Thailand. It will culminate on November 24th and 25th in Vancouver at the APEC leaders meeting, an important forum for liberalizing trade and investment throughout the region.

Canada’s hosting of APEC is a special opportunity that comes only once in 20 or 30 years. We are building on that opportunity with CYAP, encouraging events across the country for business and youth, as well as cultural programs, media conferences and conferences on human rights. Some of them are initiated by government, many more are initiated by the groups themselves, such as NGOs, and business associations.

Numerous annual business conferences, like the Electrical Producers Association, the Canadian Pulp and Paper Association, and the Intercom Telecommunications conference have adopted the CYAP theme. Bilateral business associations with Japan, Korea, and the ASEAN countries will also be very active this year.

Media was the focus of a recent conference in Toronto. Bringing together journalists from Asia, the United States, and Canada, it examined how we perceive Asia, how we report on Asia. What do we understand! What are we missing! Asian participants shared their impressions of Canada and what Canada means to the people of Asia Pacific.

The CYAP Secretariat is supporting these events by offering our communications strategy, our website, and our logo. We are especially proud of the logo: a crane, which is the symbol in Asia of peace, longevity and success with the maple leaf intertwined on its back and the calligraphy strokes all over the vibrant blue Pacific.

Besides the leaders’ meeting, we also have five APEC ministerial meetings throughout the year in cities across Canada:

• in Victoria, an APEC Transport Ministers meeting including associated meetings for business people on Pacific Gateway opportunities;

• an energy meeting in Edmonton;

• an environment and sustainable development meeting in Toronto;

• small and medium-sized industries in Ottawa;

• a Trade Ministerial in Montreal in early May.

As a cross-cutting theme, every APEC ministerial includes youth events and business networking functions, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Specialized meetings for APEC senior officials — each bringing seven or eight hundred people — are also taking place in Quebec City, St. John’s, and Regina. Bdp: Have you noticed different levels of awareness of Asia Pacific across Canada?

Bell: In British Columbia more than 35% of trade goes to Asia and the population mix is more Asian on a percentage basis than other parts of Canada. Certainly, they are more aware of the Asia Pacific than Quebec, Ontario or Atlantic Canada where there is only an awakening of interest in the opportunities. People in those regions are just beginning to realize that we are a Pacific nation and that events in Asia Pacific matter to our economy.

But the audiences we really want to reach, across Canada, are small business people, youth, and Asian Canadians. I would be happy if at the end of the year there was a new sense of awareness among these groups — a longer term legacy to what we are doing, particularly with youth. When I finished University everybody went to Europe to spend a year hitch-hiking around. Now people are more likely to go to Thailand or Indonesia or China. This is an encouraging trend.

Young Canadians learning the skills, the languages, and the cultures of the Asia Pacific are critical to our own goals and interests in the region. Bdp: What about Departmental outreach activities?

Bell: Our Ministers are speaking with editorial boards. Departmental representatives are giving backgrounders. We are making speeches at different organizations and bilateral business associations throughout the country. Building on Team Canada’s success, conferences have taken place in Toronto, Calgary, Quebec, and all four Atlantic provinces.

As I have said, it not just our desire to engage youth during our year of Asia Pacific, it is a necessity. We have set up, with the help of Human Resources Development Canada, a youth coordination office staffed by seven young Canadians tasked with bringing a strong youth component to the APEC ministerials, the leaders meeting, as well as organizing Asia Connects/Asie Cherchons, which took place in May in Winnipeg.

Asia Connects was our flagship youth event, linking young Canadians in each province and territory to the conference site in Winnipeg. It focussed on how youth can become engaged in Asia Pacific, the relevance of Asia Pacific in their future and the opportunities for them, not only in Canada but also going to Asia Pacific, working, getting job experience and studying. They also discussed broader issues such as child labour and the environment. Bdp: What about culture?

Bell: We feel that through Canada’s third pillar in our foreign policy, we can learn a lot about Asia, and Asia can learn a lot about us. We have engaged the Harbourfront Centre in Toronto to both manage and deliver an important cultural component for Canada’s Year of Asia Pacific.

There are several different components in the year of Asia Pacific cultural program. First, we are challenging cultural and local ethnic communities to come up with cultural projects and they have done so magnificently. To date, through regional cultural coordinators and advisory councils, we have approved no fewer than 160 projects.

We are also supporting Canadian artistic groups and musicians that want to incorporate an Asia Pacific theme into an original work in 1997, and collaborative projects between Canadian and Asian Pacific artists will be encouraged. For instance, a Toronto dance studio is creating a work with a Japanese choreographer that includes Korean decorations and Canadian dancers.

There will be collective projects where various Asian cultures contribute. This might include an exhibit of paintings from throughout the region, or a fashion show featuring Asian styles. By the end of 1997, the cultural component will reach millions of Canadians. We hope these activities will also present opportunities for Canadian artists and cultural enterprises to visit Asia over the coming years. Bdp: How do we engage some of the smaller or less developed economies?

Bell: On behalf of the government, Minister Axworthy has written to his counterparts in Asia Pacific countries inviting them to come to Canada with both a performing group and some sort of visual exhibit, the idea being that one would be more contemporary and one traditional.

Another way is the collective exhibits. For example, we are supporting a photographic exhibit curated by Marina Mahathir, called “Eyes on ASEAN” which covers all of the countries of the ASEAN group. These magnificent photos were on display when we had our joint consultative committee to celebrate the 30th anniversary of ASEAN and the twentieth anniversary of the Canada- ASEAN dialogue relationship. The photographic exhibit is one way of culture enriching the event and providing a backdrop to it. Bdp: How are the activities you have mentioned under Canada’s Year of Asia Pacific being funded?

Bell: The federal government is acting as a catalyst. As Minister Axworthy has announced, we are contributing $1.9 million to the cultural component. This money allows for grants of between $5000 and $10,000 to local community associations, and supports some of the larger collaborative and collective events. There is also some modest funding for the business events, but many of these are self-funded through the fees of participating companies. Bdp: One area of controversy expressed by Canadians about certain Asian countries is the nexus between trade and human rights. That is, in our rush to do business with the booming economies of the region we are neglecting very serious human rights abuses. Does CYAP plan to address human rights concerns?

Bell: Very much so. Issues of human rights concerns are an important element of Canada’s Year of Asia Pacific. We are supporting conferences that explore issues of child labour, good governance, civil societies, and the whole notion of Asian versus Western values.

The annual Couchiching conference this year focusses on those issues. The universities of Toronto, McGill, Simon Fraser, and the Canadian Institute for International Affairs, will all provide an opportunity to discuss human rights concerns in a meaningful way. And the parallel conference of NGOs taking place at the same time as the APEC leaders meeting will certainly look at the relationship between economic issues and human rights. Bdp: In certain Asian countries, this dialogue on human rights is not necessarily one which is welcomed. Would you elaborate a little on the concept of Asian values that are expressed by certain Asian leaders, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahatir being one.

Bell: In one of his first speeches as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lloyd Axworthy pointed out that Canada should not practice megaphone diplomacy on human rights, but we have to be engaged in a meaningful way. Of course, the degree of how you do that varies from situation to situation and from country to country.

In my conversations with Malaysians, such as deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia, Anwar Ibraham, and Mousa Hitam, who was once deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia and chair of the Human Rights Commission in Geneva and the UN, they make a point of saying how much they appreciate the Canadian way of dealing with human rights in Asia. We pursue constructive engagement. Through the Canadian International Development Agency, we support programs that are creating a human rights commission in Indonesia, and training judges in China, among other things.

As long as we do not appear to be preaching and we recognize that we are not unblemished ourselves, I think there is welcome room for dialogue, particularly through civil society, through working with NGOs and so on. Bdp: A number of the cities in Asia are showing serious signs of environmental strain. I wonder if you have any comment on the nature of the limits to growth that might be evident in these booming Asian economies which have, on the one hand, great opportunities and great promise but which, on the other hand, are also leading the world in environmental problems?

Bell: What I used to say in Malaysia applies to all of Asia Pacific. Malaysia has a vision of becoming a fully developed country by 2020 and they are really making tremendous strides. They are going to get there, yet there are major hurdles to overcome.

One, they must have the necessary infrastructure in place. Two, they have to mitigate the environmental impacts of rapid development. And third, they need people with the proper educational and skills background to make everything happen. In fact, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank have identified environmental challenges as the greatest single impediment to durable economic growth across Asia Pacific.

And these happen to be Canada’s three priorities in our Year of Asia Pacific: infrastructure, such as transportation, telecommunications, and power generation; the environment and sustainable development, specifically sustainable cities; and education and human resource development. All areas where Canada can make an important contribution.

And they are all inter-related. The reason that you have environmental strain is because, in some cases, infrastructure development is too rapid. We have our own blemishes there but we also have special skills. This is very important and this is where we can really provide some contributions, some value added. And thanks to Canada’s Year of Asia Pacific, we will have thousands more Canadians, from across the country, in all walks of life, engaged in these issues and contributing to the challenges facing our Pacific community. bdp: CYAP itself takes place throughout 1997. It there a plan or legacy to move from Canada’s Year of Asia Pacific to the Pacific Century?

Bell: I said a few weeks ago that I had stopped worrying about 1997 and I was starting to worry about 1998 and what will be the legacy. People suggested to me that I had better pay attention to 1997 for a while yet. But without that meaningful legacy we will have worked very hard without the results we set out to achieve.

But we also have some very specific long-term goals related to trade. I would like to see a program of training and counselling for small and medium size industries specifically related to Asia Pacific. Doing business in Asia Pacific is quite ditferent from doing business in the United States or even Latin America.

I would like to see more colleges and universities right across Canada offering programs like the one at Capilano College where young Canadians spend a year obtaining work experience in Asia Pacific. Our government recently announced a $350 million youth internship program. Asia Pacific should be front and centre in a program like that.

We need a continuing program of culture. When we sent our Cultural Attaché publication to our posts in Asia, people asked how we could talk about a cultural component of Asia Pacific when nearly all of our cultural initiatives abroad are directed at Europe. We need to change that. With its increasingly affluent, expanding middle class, Asia is the market of the future for cultural industries.

Our goal is to redirect Canada’s overall focus to Asia Pacific in a manner commensurate with our economic and political interests and commensurate with the region’s growing influence in global affairs. That will be the legacy of Canada’s Year of Asia Pacific.

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Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 14, No. 2 (1997) — Summer 1997 // Été 1997, pp. 23–26. Read the rest of this issue →