TORONTO: Canada pitched expanding its financial services presence in the Chinese market as the northern nation aims to increase exports to its second-largest trading partner in a push to diversify from the United States.
The five-day trip to China was staffed by a cast that included Prime Minister Mark Carney’s finance minister, the governor of the Bank of Canada, the chief of the Canadian banking regulator and the heads of several Canadian financial services firms.
Expanding Canadian financial services activity in China is key to achieving the government’s goal of increasing exports by 50% by 2030, according to Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne.
“If you want to expand your trade, you need financial services,” Champagne said on a call with reporters last Friday. “You need to be able to provide that kind of services to the exporters that want to do more in the Chinese market.”
Canadian insurance companies have operated in China for decades, and some are looking to expand their licences to offer more services, Champagne said.
For Manulife Financial Corp, Canada’s largest insurer, the Asian market has been its largest revenue segment in seven of its last eight fiscal years.
“Our trading relationship is around C$120bil – if you look at the size of the Canadian economy and the size of the Chinese economy, it should be much higher than that,” Champagne said. — Bloomberg
