Manitoba Premier Gary Doer will lead a mission to the Philippines from February 5-13, 2008 to promote the province as a location for immigration and investment; introduce local businesses to new opportunities in the Philippines; and further diversify Manitoba’s export markets. The mission is part of regular visits to the Philippines by Manitoba immigration and trade officials. It will feature Mr. Doer leading discussions on immigration and investment, and include business, community and other leaders representing a range of companies, organizations and institutions. The mission will also include Wellington MLA Flor Marcelino, a member of Manitoba’s Filipino community and legislative assistant to Manitoba’s minister of culture, heritage, tourism and sport.

The Centre for Food Safety (CFS) of Hong Kong announced that the processing of applications for importing poultry, game birds and their products from Saskatchewan would resume with immediate effect. The centre suspended processing of applications from Saskatchewan following confirmation of a case involving avian influenza H7N3 on a farm in the province last September. 'In view of the control measures taken by the province of Saskatchewan and the fact that there are no other cases of avian influenza reported, we decide to resume processing of applications' a CFS spokesman said.

In conjunction with the Nanotech 2008 international conference in Tokyo, the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo will conduct a Canada-Japan Nanotechnology Partnering Seminar on February 12. After Canadian and Japanese speakers present their countries’ nanotech industries, representatives of Canadian companies and research institutes will propose cooperative projects to their Japanese counterparts.

Winnipeg-based Imris, a provider of fully integrated, intra-operative imaging solutions designed to assist in the treatment of disease, announced that China PLA Hospital and Military Postgraduate Medical College has selected the Imris intra-operative MRI solution, IMRISneuro, for its expanding neurosurgical department. The hospital will be the first in China to house IMRISneuro, a fully integrated operating room that combines a movable MRI with the Imris surgical information management system. Without moving the patient, IMRISneuro allows surgeons to safely image patients during brain surgery. Completion and handover of the system is scheduled for spring 2008.