Prime Minister Mark Carney met with potential funding companions in Singapore on Tuesday as his first official visit to Asia entered its second section.
The temporary stopover in Singapore comes between Carney’s journeys to 2 financial summits, the place he’s pitching Canada as a dependable buying and selling accomplice for Southeast Asia and as a beautiful place for funding.
On Sunday, he advised a enterprise viewers in Malaysia that Canada has realized during the last 12 months that “we have to construct at scale at dwelling.” He mentioned Canada wants roughly half a trillion {dollars} in funding “in most of the areas that I believe most of the traders and companies right here would discover enticing.”
International Affairs Canada mentioned Singapore led Southeast Asia because the area’s greatest supply of international direct funding in Canada in 2024, at $9 billion. The nation is dwelling to many heavyweight worldwide traders and funds which have had prior contact with Carney.
On Tuesday, the prime minister had a collection of personal conferences with executives from sovereign wealth funds, together with the top of the Authorities of Singapore Funding Corp., which has investments in Canada. He additionally met with the present and former CEOs of Temasek, a state-owned world funding firm which has invested in Canadian carbon seize expertise.
The Prime Minister’s Workplace mentioned Carney deliberate to encourage extra funding in areas like AI, clear expertise, crucial minerals and nation-building tasks in Canada.
He additionally toured the services of port operator PSA Worldwide and met with its CEO. The corporate has terminals in British Columbia and Halifax, and Carney’s workplace mentioned he deliberate to “encourage PSA Worldwide to capitalize on Canada’s upcoming nation-building tasks.”
Carney’s go to to Singapore comes after plans for him to go to Japan had been overturned by political shifts in Tokyo.
Senior Canadian officers, who had been licensed to temporary media about Carney’s journey on the situation they not be named, steered the prime minister seemingly would have visited Japan as an alternative this week had the nation’s coalition authorities not collapsed earlier this month.
U.S. President Donald Trump additionally visited Japan on Tuesday and met with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who took office just last week.
Get day by day Nationwide information
Get the day’s high information, political, financial, and present affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox as soon as a day.
Takaichi would possibly meet with Carney on the APEC summit in South Korea, which the prime minister is scheduled to attend beginning on Thursday.
Carney started the journey in Malaysia on the Affiliation of Southeast Asian Nations leaders summit, referred to as ASEAN.
The 11-country block consists of a number of the world’s fastest-growing economies, together with Singapore. A lot of the group’s members are continually navigating the superpower rivalry between the U.S. and China.
Stéphanie Martel, a professor specializing in Southeast Asia at Queen’s College in Kingston, Ont., mentioned Ottawa must show its relevance if it needs to safe funding and commerce from the area.
“Canada most likely wants ASEAN far more than it wants us — and so they comprehend it, however I don’t suppose we essentially do,” mentioned Martel. “They’ve a lot greater fish to fry, so we have to really make a powerful and convincing case about (our) added worth.”
Carney’s go to makes an attempt to construct on the Indo-Pacific technique the Liberal authorities launched three years in the past, which pledged nearer partnerships in Southeast Asia.
The technique repeatedly famous that many within the area consider Ottawa has been partaking inconsistently, with durations of intense outreach adopted by years of silence.
Martel mentioned it is sensible for Carney to give attention to commerce, given the pressures going through Canada’s financial system from U.S. tariffs. However she mentioned he additionally wants to speak about broader points, similar to safety and local weather change, that resonate with folks in Southeast Asia.
“I’m a bit involved that we’re once more forgetting the need — together with when fascinated about securing these commerce and funding positive factors — of actually offering this view of Canada being a dependable and constructive accomplice, throughout the board,” she mentioned.
Martel mentioned that’s more and more vital for all events grappling with Trump’s commerce and safety insurance policies.
“For our companions within the area, it’s additionally turning into crystal clear that the US is unpredictable, unreliable and destabilizing. And this can make them skew in direction of China out of necessity, and solely China will likely be comfortable about that state of affairs,” she mentioned.
“There’s additionally a window of alternative for Canada — amongst different companions which can be equally invested within the preservation of predictability, frequent guidelines in commerce and different domains — to assist alleviate a few of that strain.”
Whereas ASEAN declared Canada a strategic accomplice in 2023, it has been omitted of a complete partnership that would come with it in ASEAN talks on points like defence.
“We’ve been adamant for years that we need to acquire entry to these, however we haven’t been in a position to make a powerful case for what we hope to perform being there and the way we will contribute,” Martel mentioned.
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim advised Carney at first of a bilateral assembly Monday that his cupboard has agreed to push for a deeper partnership with Canada that features commerce, analysis and schooling and funding.
Canada and ASEAN have pushed again the timeline for finishing a commerce settlement. That deal was presupposed to be signed this 12 months however has been delayed to subsequent 12 months.
Martel mentioned the delay isn’t shocking, for the reason that ASEAN bloc consists of nations with vastly completely different pursuits and ranges of growth. She mentioned it was sensible for Canada to signal a separate take care of Indonesia this 12 months and announce plans to speed up commerce talks with the Philippines.
“That is clearly the pragmatic strategy, to develop negotiations on the multilateral and bilateral sides,” she mentioned.
Carney has additionally been assembly with leaders he’s prone to see on the summit circuit subsequent 12 months. He met with Filipino President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., forward of the Philippines internet hosting the ASEAN summit subsequent 12 months.
Carney also plans to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping later this week on the APEC summit in Korea. China will host the APEC summit subsequent 12 months.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
