Chinese investors dislike federal hurdles
‘Lack patience’ for infrastructure rules, ambassador says
OTTAWA — The federal government’s efforts to draw in foreign cash to help fund big infrastructure projects in Canada will likely find little interest from China’s deep-pocketed investors, the country’s envoy to Ottawa says.
Ambassador Lu Shaye told the Canadian Press he doesn’t think Chinese investors will want to endure what he described as lengthy regulatory processes required for Canadian infrastructure.
They would probably prefer to continue funnelling their investment dollars into regions with far fewer procedural hurdles, such as East Africa, he said.
“I think it is not easy to build large-scale infrastructure in Canada — I’m afraid that Chinese investors lack patience with this process,” Lu said through an interpreter in an interview at the Chinese embassy.
“They’re afraid that it would take too long to build large-scale infrastructure in Canada.”
To lure more foreign investment into Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his government have pitched the country to international investors as a stable place with a skilled workforce.
The government is working on a new federal agency dedicated to attracting foreign investment — the so-called Invest in Canada Hub. It also plans to build a sales force to promote Canada abroad and to hire more trade commissioners to focus on pulling in investment from strategic markets.
Infrastructure is key to the government’s long-term strategy to lift the economy and to create jobs. It has committed more than $180 billion for new projects, such as bridges, railways and transit systems, over the next 11 years.
As part of the federal push to boost infrastructure investments, Ottawa is also establishing a $35-billion infrastructure bank to use public funds as a way to leverage billions more from private investors to pay for new, largescale projects.
In exchange for their financial commitments, private investors would reap steady, predictable monetary benefits such as user fees or tolls.
But don’t expect much investment love from China.
“Maybe in Canada you have complete procedures for conducting large-scale infrastructure projects,” the Chinese ambassador said. “In China, the procedures are also complete, but those procedures go very fast. So, to complete it, a project takes less time.”
Lu said there are few investment opportunities for China in Canada at the moment.