MOU endorsing wood-frame construction for affordable housing in China creates major opportunity for Canadian forest products
Canada's Minister of Natural Resources, the Honourable Lisa Raitt and British Columbia Forests and Range Minister Pat Bell today announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding with the City of Shanghai which endorses wood-frame construction for affordable housing, thereby creating an enormous opportunity for Canadian forest products.
As an environmentally sustainable, energy-efficient and rapidly-assembled construction method, the Shanghai Housing Bureau sees Canadian wood-frame construction products and expertise as being well suited to meet Shanghai's affordable housing needs. Shanghai is the first city to move ahead with China's affordable housing initiative, which has an overall national budget of $141 billion. In Shanghai alone, it is expected that by 2012 one in five housing starts will be for affordable housing, representing over 20 million square metres of construction.
Under the memorandum of understanding, the Government of Canada, through Natural Resources Canada, will contribute $800,000 in 2009-2010 to construct a wood-frame demonstration building, which will showcase the application of wood design and building materials. The Province of British Columbia will manage the project through Forestry Innovation Investment (FII), the province's international marketing agency for wood products and the City of Shanghai will provide land and some building materials.
Opportunities for wood use in affordable housing construction include roof trusses, partition walls, in-fill walls, and hybrid construction for mixed-used commercial and residential buildings. It is expected that the experience gained from the Shanghai program will help FII and Canada Wood Group to access affordable housing projects in other major cities across China.
The memorandum of understanding was signed in Shanghai as part of an ongoing trade mission which includes approximately 20 industry representatives and whose aim is to expand and diversify Canadian wood product sales into China.