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Canada beckons Chinese firms with open arms

(China Daily/Agencies)
Updated: 2009-08-11 07:57

Canada wants Chinese State-run entities such as China Investment Corp (CIC) to consider North American listings as a way of facilitating investment into the energy-rich country, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said.

Flaherty said he will assure Chinese authorities that their investment is welcome, as long as it's done on a "commercial basis". Listing publicly or acquiring stakes in already traded companies is the simplest route, though not the only one, he said.

Jim Flaherty,Canada's Finance Minister.

"Generally speaking, we would like to see large investments governed by the public-trading rules," Flaherty, 59, said ahead of a visit to Beijing and Shanghai this week.

Canada, the second-biggest exporter to the US after China, wants to strengthen trade ties with the Asian country as part of efforts to reduce its dependence on the slumping US economy.

CIC made its first major investment in a Canadian company last month when it acquired a 17-percent stake in Teck Resources Ltd, Canada's largest diversified mining company.

Canada is among the world's 10 largest producers of oil and natural gas, and is a major exporter of nickel, fertilizers and wheat, making the North American country "increasingly important" to China, Flaherty said in a separate interview with Bloomberg TV.

While Canada sits on the largest pool of oil reserves outside of the Middle East, China's State-owned companies have a relatively small presence in the country's energy sector.

China Petroleum & Chemical, known as Sinopec, owns a 50-percent stake in Canada's Northern Lights oil project, while Cnooc Ltd, a unit of State-controlled China National Offshore Oil Corp, purchased a minority stake in Canada's MEG Energy Corp in 2005.

Flaherty said his trip to China is part of a broader effort to strengthen ties with Brazil, Russia, India and China - the so-called BRIC bloc of countries.

"The exit from the recession globally is going to be led by the BRIC countries," Flaherty said.

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China has been one of the few bright spots this year for Canada's exporters, who have increased shipments to that country by 6.8 percent in the five months through May, according to Statistics Canada data. Exports to the US over that period were down 26 percent.

Flaherty's trip is the fourth by a senior government minister over the past four months. Trade Minister Stockwell Day visited China in April, followed by Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon in May and Transport Minister John Baird last month.

Flaherty said the participation of TMX Group Inc, which runs the Toronto Stock Exchange, was "intentional" to promote Canada's capital markets as the country seeks more Chinese investment. TMX sent Robert Fotheringham, senior vice-president of trading with TSX Markets, to China with Flaherty.