As a major natural resource province in Canada, Yukon has been cooperating with China in economic fields such as mining and tourism in recent years. Pasloski introduced that Chinese enterprises such as Shaanxi Jinduicheng, Yunnan Chihong Zinc & Germanium, and CNOOC have large resource projects in Yukon. He pointed out that Yukon has good infrastructure conditions for attracting investment.
According to information provided by Zhang Chaofeng, a senior business development officer from the Yukon government’s Economic Development Department, Yukon has a total of 5,000 kilometers of all-weather road mileage, including the Alaska Highway and the Dempster Highway, and remote areas have access to electricity. The port transportation has geographical advantages, with major outlets being deep-water ice-free ports, including Stewart Port in British Columbia. In addition, the sea route from Yukon to China is convenient, with daily flights and cargo services from Whitehorse to Vancouver.
For more than a century, the mining industry has been the economic pillar of Yukon. However, Pasloski also admitted that the region still has room for better development, and the government fully supports the development of the mining sector, hoping to establish closer cooperation with China.
Yukon is one of three territories in northern Canada, covering an area of approximately 480,000 square kilometers, with a population of about 36,000. It became well-known during the Klondike Gold Rush in the late 19th century. Yukon also has rich mineral resources such as zinc and silver, but investment is relatively insufficient. In September 2012, Yukon and Shaanxi Province of China signed a sister province agreement in Xi'an to explore exchanges and cooperation between the two provinces in areas such as trade, mining, scientific research, education, and tourism.
In addition to the mining economy, tourism has rapidly become one of Yukon's main economic sources in recent years. According to statistics from the Canada Border Services Agency, the total number of domestic and international visitors to Yukon in 2013 reached 350,000, of which the number of Chinese visitors was 437, a year-on-year increase of 31%.