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.
"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.
