Page 99 - Azerbaijan State University of Economics

THE JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC SCIENCES: THEORY AND PRACTICE, V.71, # 1, 2014, pp. 99-119

STATE OWNED ENTERPRISES: CHINESE FDI IN CANADA VIA THE LENSES OF
PERCEPTUAL, POLITICAL, ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONSIDERATIONS

Bryan Davis Howard
In association with Cameron Geldart and Rahul Thomas
MBA, University of Alberta
Master of Forestry, University of Alberta
B.Sc in Wood Products Processing, University of British Columbia
Tel: (+1) 780 6918897, E-mail: [email protected]

Received January 6 2014; accepted 15 Mayl 2014; published online 15 July 2014

Abstract

Recent high profile acquisition attempts of two Canadian publicly traded companies by

foreign state-owned enterprises has sparked significant public discourse in newspapers,

magazines and coffee shops around the country. This paper will contribute to this dialogue by

addressing the ramifications of growing Chinese FDI in Canada via the lenses of perceptual,

political, economic and social considerations. Commonly held beliefs regarding state-owned

enterprises (SOEs) and their records with respect to foreign direct investment (FDI) in other

resource-rich nations will also be evaluated.

Key words: FDI, China, social considerations, resource-rich nations, acquisition, and state

owned enterprises.

JEL Classification codes: H5, P48, G34, M1

Chinese state-owned enterprises: an overview

Until the late 1970s China’s economic policies reflected its political landscape as a closed,

socialist state. Beginning in 1978 Den Xiaoping, China’s new leader, oversaw “the creation of a

market economy and capitalist-like enterprises, and by the early 1990s his reforms had helped

lift an estimated 170 million peasants out of extreme poverty” It was these policies that allowed

the foundation of today’s variation of SOEs to take root in China during this time.

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