2 weeks Ago By Ari Yanover
Premier Danielle Smith is almost through with her week of meetings in Japan and South Korea which she hopes will help grow Alberta’s energy and agricultural markets in Asia. Her trip has so far consisted of high-speed trains, celebrating partnerships and friendships between the countries and discussing trading relationships. Smith has been putting updates on X detailing the past few days in Asia.
In her most recent post on Tuesday, Smith said she met with South Korea to discuss trading internationally and said the province is committed to being one of South Korea’s “most trusted” energy suppliers. She added Alberta is looking forward to “selling even more” energy to the country as pipeline projects continue to be built. “Through important partnerships like these, Alberta and Korea also have the opportunity to collaborate on hydrogen, ammonia, carbon capture and lithium extraction for use in clean energy technologies,” Smith said.
Smith’s office announced on Friday that she would be travelling to Japan and South Korea April 18-25. Her trip began in Japan where she posted on X that she rode the Hayabusa high-speed train from Tokyo to Sapporo which has a maximum speed of 320 km/h. She said if Alberta had the same train, a trip from Calgary and Edmonton would take less than an hour.
The province is currently developing a passenger rail master plan, which includes a 15-year delivery plan to introduce a railway connecting Calgary and Edmonton’s downtowns and surrounding areas. Smith spent two days in Sapporo celebrating the 45th anniversary of the official Alberta-Hokkaido partnership, meeting with Hokkaido Gov. Naomichi Suzuki to discuss energy and food security and the potential for the two to grow their bilateral trade.
“Alberta and Hokkaido share a strong bond and a mutual interest in advancing innovation — from CCUS and AI data centres to semiconductors and the safe export of hydrogen and ammonia. Alberta’s government also looks forward to continuing these important discussions when we welcome the Hokkaido delegation’s visit to Alberta next month,” Smith said in a Monday post on social media. On Monday, Smith joined Gov.
Kim Jin-Tae in Gangwon State, South Korea, to celebrate 50 years of friendship between Alberta and Gawon, unveiling new signage at the Alberta Pavilion in Alpensia Resort. Smith added Alberta is a top destination for data centres after touring the Naver Data Centre. “While our sister province relationship has focused mainly on education, culture and sport, we’re excited to expand into areas like health and life sciences, tech and innovation, and explore increased trade of sustainable energy like LNG,” Smith wrote on X.
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