Virus puts crimp in dealings with China

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This article was published 18/02/2020 (2224 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The coronavirus outbreak in China is hitting economies around the globe, including Winnipeg’s.

Wealthy Chinese investors have cancelled visits to Winnipeg because of the COVID-19 virus. Some home-grown technology development has been delayed, too.

Cubresa, a Winnipeg company that develops medical devices, has a joint venture operation in Hefei, a city in central China about halfway between Shanghai and Wuhan, the epicentre of the virus outbreak.

James Schellenberg, the CEO and founder of Cubresa, travelled to China with one other colleague to visit the joint venture in early November.

He said he would have gone there again were it not for the risks of contacting the contagion.

“We had staff who were planning to go back to China for the thanksgiving celebrations, but their families told them don’t come, there is something going on,” Schellenberg said.

In addition to being prevented from regular meetings with their partners in Hefei, there are also delays in parts moving back and forth. But Schellenberg figures he will be able to weather the storm.

“I think we will be OK,” he said. “There is lots of planning involved in adjusting to the delays. But we don’t think the delays are so significant that it will impact us in any big way.”

But Ab Freig is not so quick to dismiss the disruption.

Freig, the founder of Triple 3 Biotechnology, has developed a technology to extract collagen, a protein used as a skin care and joint pain remedy, that it processes into capsules and tablets.

Freig said there is demand for that type of supplement in China and he hopes to be able to distribute the product there when it receives Chinese regulatory approval.

Some days ago he was on a conference call with potential investors from China, investors who had intended to travel to Winnipeg to discuss the project with Freig, but were unable to because of the global travel concerns and restrictions.

He said the call went well, but it’s not the same as meeting in person.

“I have experience working with Chinese business partners,” Freig said. “It is all about relationships. I was in Beijing a couple of years ago for a meeting and the entire morning was spent drinking tea, a tea ceremony type of thing. Only then could we talk business.”

Triple 3 and Cubresa are both associated with the Manitoba Technology Accelerator (MTA), which has a strategic relationship with an incubator and investor group in Hefei.

Marshall Ring, the chief executive officer of MTA, was in China earlier this year and left only days before the outbreak had become a public health concern.

While he was there, among other things he was making arrangements to meeting potential investors in Winnipeg. But those investors could not travel and the meeting had to be cancelled.

“The investors were coming to talk about a $10-million investment,” he said. “We ended up doing a telephone conference call, but it is not the same.”

The outbreak has delayed the settlement of a number of international entrepreneurs who had been scheduled to set up shop at MTA though a federal government program called Startup Visa Program.

Ring said many of them have work permits but are having difficulty getting to Winnipeg from various parts of the world.

“It is slowing things down,” Ring said. “We had a guy from Hong Kong arrive a few days ago. He was able to get here, but others have not been so successful.”

Health Canada has assessed the risk to Canadian travellers to China as high.

The federal government advises not to travel to Hubei province, including Wuhan city, and to avoid all non-essential travel to the rest of China.

Health Canada says travellers who come from Hubei province to Canada are at an increased risk of having COVID-19, and that people who have travelled to Hubei province in the last 14 days should limit contact with others for 14 days from the date they left Hubei.

Those travellers are told to self-isolate and contact the local Canadian public health authority within 24 hours of arriving in Canada.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca