The Yukon signed a sister province agreement with Shaanxi province in northwest China during the premier's recent trip to the country.

The sister agreement "solidifies a relationship between their province and our territory, and I think it will be a great benefit in many different areas such as trade and investment, education, tourism, culture and of course mining as well,” said Premier Darrell Pasloski in an interview Monday afternoon.

The trip was organized by the Council of the Federation. It presented eight Canadian premiers with an opportunity to meet with top government officials and key business and industry leaders in China.

In addition to visiting Shaanxi on Yukon business, the premier visited Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong as part of the council's trip itinerary.

While in Shanghai, the premiers attended an annual banquet hosted by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, the Maple Leaf Ball.

This year's theme was the Gold Rush, and Pasloski delivered the keynote address.

Among meetings with government officials, the premiers met with Wang Qishan, the vice-premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China.

Strengthening Canada's and China's relationship was the key topic of that meeting.

Other sessions were held with China's minister of Commerce and Canadian diplomats in the three cities.

Pasloski explained the importance of China and more broadly of Asia to trade in Canada.

"We've done most of our trading with the United States and to a lesser degree with Europe,” the premier said.

"Those are two areas in the world that are going through economic downturn. Some people may even argue recession, so as an exporting nation, if we want to continue to grow, we need to look at markets in the world that are growing,” he said.

Countries throughout Asia and South American countries like Brazil are economies that continue to show strong growth.

"As your financial advisor would tell you to diversify your investment portfolio, I think as a nation it's important for us to diversify who we do business with as well,” said Pasloski.

The Yukon already has a fairly extensive business relationship with China and the premier said the new sister province agreement will help foster more investment opportunities.

"We have a lot of opportunities here but we're such a small population, we don't have the capital to see these projects go forward so we continue to look for partners to allow these projects to go forward.”

Large projects create direct and indirect jobs, the premier said, and they create training opportunities.

Over the years, as Canada's economic ties with China have grown, many Canadians have protested the ties because of China's human rights record.

Pasloski said the topic of human rights was discussed during the meetings.

"One of the things that we can do is we can provide leadership through example....”

But when Chinese companies work in the Yukon, they must follow Yukon laws and standards, be it labour or environmental standards or tax and royalty regulations, he noted.

Canada and the Yukon signed a new resource revenue sharing deal this past summer that will mean more revenue staying in the territory.

In response to questions regarding the possibility of a new resource revenue sharing agreement between the Yukon government and the First Nations, Pasloski said:

"We continue to work with First Nations all the time and, as I like to say that in the governance that we have here in the Yukon, we need to ensure that First Nations are a partner in our economy and we're continuing to have discussions with First Nations, not only on sharing of resource revenue but in many different areas where we can see a benefit to all Yukoners by working together.”

The premier could not provide a timeline for a new revenue deal between his government and the First Nations.