Chinese Investment in Canada: Trends and Policy Responses
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2018-09-12
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Abstract
After constructing a novel, transaction-level dataset on China’s direct investment into Canada, this paper examines the trends of said foreign direct investment over the past quarter century and places them within the context of their ongoing public policy issues. China’s investment into Canada has a controversial history, in large part due to concerns over China’s state-ownership of the investors. By presenting the scale and forms of this investment, it is possible both to determine what avenues exist to respond to it, and to assess how founded concerns over ownership are. The dataset reveals that China’s investors conducted 783 transactions into Canada for the period 1993 through 2017, for a total of C$86 billion. State-owned investments have played a significant role in China’s investment history in Canada, but have in recent years become less significant than private investment flows from China. Still, the controversy surrounding China’s investment activities continues to draw significant attention, with the result being a need for evidence-based responses to the costs, benefits, risks, and opportunities of said investment. Options for amendments to the Canadian Investment Canada Act are one such avenue to improve the system, but must balance public and international investment concerns, and need to be conducted alongside enhanced investment monitoring policies.
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Bettcher, K. (2018). Chinese Investment in Canada: Trends and Policy Responses (Unpublished master's project). University of Calgary, Calgary, AB.