Canadas Foreign Direct Investment Strategy

1
Canadas Foreign Direct Investment Strategy

• Canada has been successful in attracting FDI over
  the last decades. Canada has always offered a
  great value to foreign investors a top
  investment environment, high-quality labour,
  competitive business costs and most importantly,
  direct access to the worlds richest market, the
  North American market (NAFTA).
• Recently, however, the emergence of China and
  other fast-moving emerging economies into the
  world economy is profoundly changing the global
  commerce structure. Production is increasingly
  specialized and countries around the world are
  engaged in a fierce competition to win their
  place in global supply chains. These changes
  have a significant impact on the economic
  structure of all industrialized countries and
  require a rapid repositioning of domestic
  activities to higher value-added segments of
  global supply chains.
• An effective FDI strategy must reflect these
  realities and acknowledge the challenges ahead.
  Canada cannot and should not try to compete on
  everything. A highly targeted investment
  strategy must focus efforts on industry sectors
  and business clusters where Canada has clear
  comparative advantages and strong value
  propositions to offer.

2
Focus on Priority Industry Sectors

• The Invest in Canada Bureau of the Department of
  Foreign Affairs and International Trade has
  analyzed industry, trade and FDI trends to
  identify priority sectors for FDI promotion and
  attraction efforts in selected markets. Three
  key criteria were used
• Is the industry sector desirable? It has high
  and growing productivity level, pays high and
  growing wages and accounts for a growing share of
  the economy.
• Can Canada attract FDI in the industry sector?
  Canada offers a strong value proposition to
  foreign investors, having strong comparative
  advantages in both attracting FDI in and
  exporting goods from the industry sector.
• Can investment promotion efforts make a
  difference? Even if a sector is desirable and
  competitive, proactive investment attraction and
  promotion activities may not make much difference
  in well-known sectors which already attract a lot
  of FDI or are chosen to foreign investment.
• Based on the above analysis, the Invest in Canada
  bureau has identified key priority industry
  sectors and enabling technologies where Canada
  offers clear competitive advantages and where
  proactive promotion efforts can make a
  difference.

3
What are Canadas priority sectors for
investment promotion?

• ICT
• Computer electronics
• Software IT services

Food processing

• Wood processing
• Wood products
• Paper manufacturing
• Printing

• Life science
• Pharmaceutical
• Medical devices

• Canadas Priority Sectors account for
• 23 of employment
• 30 of GDP
• 40 of capital investment
• 75 of merchandise exports
• 85 of business RD

• Advance manufacturing
• Aerospace
• Automotive
• Electrical equipment
• Machinery equipment
• Metal products tooling

• Enabling technologies
• Nanotechnology
• Biotechnology
• Environmental technologies

• Business services
• Professional services
• Wholesale

• Industrial materials
• Chemicals
• Plastics
• Mineral products
• Primary metal

• Utilities
• Gas distribution
• Pipeline transportation