Prime Minister Mark Carney met with potential funding companions in Singapore on Tuesday as his first official go to to Asia entered its second section.
The transient 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 lovely place for funding.
On Sunday, he informed a enterprise viewers in Malaysia that Canada has realized during the last 12 months that “we have to construct at scale at house.” He mentioned Canada wants roughly half a trillion {dollars} in funding “in lots of the areas that I feel lots of the buyers and companies right here would discover enticing.”
World Affairs Canada mentioned Singapore led Southeast Asia because the area’s largest supply of overseas direct funding in Canada in 2024, at $9 billion. The nation is house to many heavyweight worldwide buyers and funds which have had prior contact with Carney.
On Tuesday, the prime minister had a sequence 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 international funding firm which has invested in Canadian carbon seize know-how.
The Prime Minister’s Workplace mentioned Carney deliberate to encourage extra funding in areas like AI, clear know-how, essential minerals and nation-building initiatives 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 initiatives.”
Carney’s go to to Singapore comes after plans for him to go to Japan have been overturned by political shifts in Tokyo.
Senior Canadian officers, who have been approved to transient media about Carney’s journey on the situation they not be named, urged the prime minister seemingly would have visited Japan as a substitute 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 workplace simply final week.
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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, often known as ASEAN.
The 11-country block contains a few of the world’s fastest-growing economies, together with Singapore. A lot of the group’s members are consistently 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 assume we essentially do,” mentioned Martel. “They’ve a lot greater fish to fry, so we have to really make a robust 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 smart for Carney to deal with commerce, given the pressures dealing with Canada’s economic 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 individuals in Southeast Asia.
“I’m a bit involved that we’re once more forgetting the need — together with when enthusiastic about securing these commerce and funding beneficial properties — 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 necessary for all events grappling with Trump’s commerce and safety insurance policies.
“For our companions within the area, it’s additionally changing into crystal clear that the US is unpredictable, unreliable and destabilizing. And it will make them skew in direction of China out of necessity, and solely China will likely be pleased about that scenario,” she mentioned.
“There’s additionally a window of alternative for Canada — amongst different companions which might be equally invested within the preservation of predictability, widespread guidelines in commerce and different domains — to assist alleviate a few of that stress.”
Whereas ASEAN declared Canada a strategic accomplice in 2023, it has been disregarded of a complete partnership that would come with it in ASEAN talks on points like defence.
“We’ve been adamant for years that we wish to achieve entry to these, however we haven’t been in a position to make a robust case for what we hope to perform being there and the way we will contribute,” Martel mentioned.
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim informed 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 stunning, for the reason that ASEAN bloc contains international locations with vastly completely different pursuits and ranges of improvement. She mentioned it was good 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 method, 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 additionally plans to satisfy with Chinese language 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
