A massive new wholesale outlet planned for Dundurn is one step closer to opening day after a successful trade mission to China last month by a contingent of local officials.

Fred Wilson, Reeve of the Rural Municipality of Dundurn, said 12 local representatives headed to Beijing, Chongquing and Hangzhou July 7 to 15 on an invite from the mayors of those cities to show Chinese investors the 155-acre Dundurn International Exhibition Centre is for real. He said while in China the officials met with potential investors and entrepreneurs in an effort to drum up interest in the centre.

“My understanding is it was very successful,” said Wilson, noting Dundurn Mayor Doug Narraway and Saskatoon Mayor Don Atchison were part of the 12-member contingent that went to China. “The language barrier restricted our exposure considerably…but just by talking to the Brightenview staff and other people that were there, they were very pleased with the reception that we had.”

Wilson said each member of the group made a presentation when arriving in a new city to extol the virtues of doing business at the wholesale outlet that could potentially house 350 Chinese businesses and employ over 1,000 people once construction is completed in late 2014. He said the mission was “helped out quite a bit” by the participation of the Saskatoon Regional Economic Development Authority (SREDA) when it came to the marketing of the centre and the area.

“It’s a little bigger than Dundurn, it’s a regional thing now,” he said. “Their participation is very (much) needed.”

Narraway said the mission was “very well attended” by Chinese businesses and city representatives at all the group’s stops and everyone they met in China seemed really interested in the project. He said this should go a long way in showing potential investors the Dundurn International Exhibition Centre is a good way to develop their business.

“At the end of the day it was all a SREDA driven mission and the Chinese believe pretty firmly in titles and so on, so having the mayor and the reeve and the mayor of Saskatoon definitely showed our support of SREDA and the Brightenview project,” said Narraway. “SREDA also represents the Town of Dundurn and the RM of Dundurn, so they are the ones that are helping us to better ourselves to get the growth growing and to bring in companies to help us.”

To read more please see the Aug. 12 print edition of The Davidson Leader.