| The international involvement of Alberta-based businesses covers trade in goods, trade in services, and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), both inward and outward. Increasingly FDI is linked to trade in goods and services. Indeed, the export of services like consulting or construction engineering tends to involve the setting up of supporting facilities abroad (outward FDI), and exports of goods frequently necessitate the provision of maintenance services in their wake, either across the border or through an office abroad. Data on outward FDI by Alberta-based firms are not available, nor are data on exports of services by province of origin. Therefore an analysis of what has been happening to Alberta’s international commercial relations is of necessity... |
