VANCOUVER -- As Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is currently visiting China to discuss economic issues with Chinese officials, his efforts to seek closer ties between the two countries have won him wide praise from the business community back in his country.

"Canada needs China, and China needs Canada," said Tommy Yuan, president of Canada Asia Business Network, whose Richmond-based company works with investors to promote Canadian natural resources, products and services to China.

Unlike the previous Liberal Party government, which focused on the United States and Europe, Harper's Conservative Party government has been doing far more to diversify Canada's trading partners and make inroads into the emerging Chinese market, Yuan said.

A report released by TD Economics Last week predicts that Canada's trade with the U.S. would fall significantly in the next 10 years.

The study, entitled "Canada's Declining Reliance on the U.S.," predicts that the U.S. market will account for just two-thirds of Canadian exports in the next 10 years -- a decline of nearly 20 percent compared with 2002.

And Canada is looking to China to fill that gap left by the Americans.

Yuan attributed much of this changing relationship to the similarity of production structures of the two North American countries. Both have large reserves of commodities, but their manufacturing sectors have declined in the last few decades, especially after the 2008 financial crisis.

This has left room for the two countries to export significant amounts of commodities to China while importing manufactured goods they need.

But Yuan said Canada is already lagging behind, as other developed countries now enjoy a significant head start.

"Australia and New Zealand, they are very ambitious," he said, noting the two Oceania nations have long been looking at Asian markets such as China, Japan and India to export their own natural resources.

Although those countries have been ruled by different political parties over the years, the governments of Australia and New Zealand have consistently worked with China to encourage trade, Yuan said.

He said this stands in contrast to Canada, which only began to significantly amplify its interest in China after the Conservative Party came to power five years ago. Harper's trip to China is symbolic of the increasing importance China has in the Canadian economy, but it also means Canada has a lot of ground to make up, Yuan said.

Just two days into Harper's trip to China, the visit has already yielded results. The two sides signed a declaration of intent on investment protection for Chinese and Canadian investors, a significant step toward a Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement between the two countries.

The agreement covers a variety of fields including agriculture, energy, natural resources, education, and science and technology partnerships.

Yuan said the agreement will benefit Canada greatly in the near future through large investment projects.