Outlook for Canadian Private Capital in Asia
| Author | P. D. Berrington |
| Published date | 01 September 1956 |
| Date | 01 September 1956 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/002070205601100306 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
OUTLOOK
FOR
CANADIAN
PRIVATE
CAPITAL
IN
ASIA
P.
D.
Berrington*
"Too
little
and
too
late"
has
been
the
only
recent
serious
objection
to
the West's
pattern
of
economic
aid
to
the
under-
developed
countries
of
Asia.
Doubts
of
economic
imperialism
were
expressed
in
the
early
stages,
notably
at
the
inception
of
the
Colombo
Plan. Despite
such
sentiments
as
" . . .
the
pre-
dominant
motive
has
come
to
be
the
use of
economic
assistance
as
a
weapon
of
foreign
policy,"
1
the
evident
success
and
prac-
tical
idealism
of
the
Plan has
won
widespread
support,
broaden-
ing
its
initially
exclusively Commonwealth
character
to
cover
nine
other participants
including
the
United
States
and
Japan.
As
the
late
Mr.
Senanayake
(one-time
Prime
Minister of
Ceylon)
put
it
"Asia's
fundamental
problem
is
economic,
not
political."
While
the
opportunities
for
Canadian
capital in
the
domestic
economy
are
well
known
and
have
never
been
greater,
there
is
far
less
interest
in
the
possibilities
of
investment
in
Asia, despite
a
widely
publicized
government contribution to
the
Colombo
Plan
of
$128.4
million
over
a
period of
five
years.
The
rapid
development
of
the
Canadian
economy
during
and
after
the
war
has not
appreciably
changed
the
pattern
of
trade
from
the
traditionally
satisfactory
European
and
United
States
markets.
Even
the
latest
figures
show
exports
to
the
Pacific-
Asian
area
(including
India
and
Pakistan)
as
about
6
per cent.
and
imports about
5
per
cent.
of
the
total.
Thus,
while
the
Canadian
role
changed
fundamentally
from
a
hewer
of
wood
to
a
producer
of
capital
goods,
such was
the
speed
of
transforma-
tion
and
ease
of
marketing
that
the
potential
in
the
Pacific
was
not
recognized
and,
indeed,
is likely
to
remain
unrecognized
until
present traditional
markets
become
unable
to
absorb production.
Even
before
the
Communist
seizure
of China caused
a
virtual
closure
of
her
markets,
Canadian
trade
each
way,
was
only
*At
present
representative
in
western
Canada
of
Fibreboard Paper
Products
Corporation
of
San
Francisco,
the
author
was
a
district
officer
in
the
Indian
Police
in
the
Punjab
and
the
North-West
Frontier
Province
from
1939
to
1947.
He
was
a
member
of
the
CIIA's Van-
couver
branch study
group
on
Canadian
Interests in
the
Pacific.
1.
R.
G.
Neale,
Australian
Interests
and
Attitudes towards
Economic
Assistance
to
Asia.
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