Mr. Tony Guglielmin reports

BALLARD HOSTS OSAKA GOVERNOR MATSUI DURING HIS TRADE MISSION TO CANADA

On Sept. 16, Ballard Power Systems Inc. hosted Ichiro Matsui, the governor of Osaka, Japan, and his delegation at the company's headquarters facility during the governor's trade mission to Canada. Mr. Matsui is interested in furthering the use of clean energy technologies, including fuel cells, within the Osaka prefecture.

Tony Guglielmin, Ballard's chief financial officer and a number of the company's senior leadership team, met with Mr. Matsui and his delegation. Mr. Guglielmin commented: "It is an honour to have the governor of a major Japanese city visit our facility and invite Ballard to participate in a November clean-technology networking event being planned for Vancouver. We look forward to meeting a number of Japanese clean-tech companies at that event and identifying other potential commercial opportunities in Japan."

Japan has put significant focus on the deployment of fuel cell technology. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has referred to hydrogen as an "energy of the future" and the Japanese government plans to spend more than $100-million on the development of hydrogen infrastructure and various other hydrogen initiatives over the next five years.

Ballard has a number of commercial ties with Japan and wishes to expand commercial business in that country. A recently announced distribution agreement with Toyota Tsusho Corp. (TTC), a member company of the Toyota Group, is an important step in that direction, with TTC now acting as a distributor of Ballard-powered fuel cell products in Japan. The initial term of the distribution agreement runs to Dec. 31, 2020.

In addition, an important supplier to Ballard -- Nisshinbo Holdings Inc. -- is also now a key strategic investor in Ballard, having invested $5-million in November, 2015.