I want to be careful to say that nobody really knows the future, but as career forecasters we try to map those things out as carefully as we possibly can. China is going through a transformation. It's very contingent on the world growth. That's the big question at the moment. When we see a situation where we are seeing ships decommissioned and export trade actually faltering, one has a lot of questions about that.
What we see at the moment, though, is a revived U.S. economy that's taking the lead in the rest of the world. All eyes are on this as to how this growth is going to transmit across to the rest of the world. We're in a waiting game at the moment, so it's very difficult to tell whether China's trade situation is going to resume. It's fundamental to it making then a shift from the trade side towards this consumption-based growth that the government is very keen on seeing. While the uncertainty persists, getting the savings rate down inside of China is inherently difficult, but it's necessary for this to happen
When it comes to constituents here in Canada, I believe there is one trend inside China that really needs our very focused attention; that is, there is an aging of the population problem in China that's impinging on its own ability to produce goods and services for itself and for the rest of the world. This has caused coastal wage rates to be rising in China to the tune of 18% to 19% a year over at least the last six years. China is looking at a new way to invest in the rest of the world to create capacity for itself. It it is on the march looking for resources, looking for people, and looking for a number of different things with very strategic outbound investments.
I believe it's incumbent on us in southwestern Ontario or other parts of Canada to be aware that this is a key trend that is governing Chinese outbound investments in the manufacturing sector in a number of different jurisdictions around the world. I'm not sure of the extent to which this $5 billion in Canada is capturing that, but that's the context.