I would agree with you in the context of the role of state-owned enterprises. What's also a bit disturbing from the 19th party congress is the fact that there are now party members on boards of private companies as well. These are not the signals that you want to send to the western world in particular, because they cause some concerns.
State-owned enterprises have been around for a long time. Some have given us concern, particularly when they make investments in our natural resource sector. If you take a look at our polling—we did a poll two years ago on foreign direct investment from Asia—the one area that Canadians are quite concerned about is state-owned enterprise investment in the natural resource sector. Only 11% of Canadians supported that. So I think you've hit on a key note.
With respect to Aecon, I see that as a opportunity for Canada. CCCI has invested in a similar type of company in Australia. That investment has gone well. They've added more people. They've kept the management structure. The investment has provided opportunities for this Australian firm in other markets in Asia.
This type of merger can serve as an entree for Canada into the one belt, one road projects that will be taking place. There's lots of money and investments being attached to this. I think we have to be judicious in how we look at these investments from state-owned enterprises. There are policies in place, with the Investment Canada Act, and also our national security interests. We need to go through these processes to examine them and understand whether or not they will have an impact.
To be honest with you, sir, some of my concerns are more in the technology side, particularly moving forward in artificial intelligence, PIN technology, big data management. We need to be aware of that and understand it, how it will impact, because we have a lot of very good young technology companies that are open for merger and acquisition. We just need to understand it. It's something we should be spending a lot of time on as well.