September 12, 2016

For Immediate Release

G20 a Missed Opportunity for NL

Opposition Business Critic Steve Kent said he is surprised that the Ball Liberals didn't take greater advantage of the fact that this year's G20 summit was held in Hangzhou, the capital city of China's province of Zhejiang - the Chinese province with which Newfoundland and Labrador has had a Memorandum of Understanding on trade and cooperation since 2001.

"Our administration renewed and advanced our relationship with China's Zhejiang province in 2013. With the G20 happening in that very province last week, we should have capitalized on the opportunity to highlight what Newfoundland and Labrador is doing there and identify new opportunities.

"Zhejiang is our gateway to China, an enormous market with a huge untapped potential that could support growth here at home.

"Instead of growth, the Ball Liberals are projecting 33,000 job losses in Newfoundland and Labrador in the next five years, according to the 2016 Budget documents. Trade opportunities have the potential to increase the number of jobs in our communities by leaps and bounds. If only we had a provincial government that understood how to leverage trade opportunities for growth instead of an administration that sees nothing in our future but decline," he said.

-30-

Media Contact:

Heather MacLean, Director of Communications, Office of the Official Opposition,

(709) 729 6105, heathermaclean@gov.nl.ca