Fresh from its acquisition of Vancouver-based Retirement Concepts, Chinese company Anbang Insurance made known its plans to not only send entrepreneurs into Canada, but also to provide those businesspersons with seed funding.

“We have 300m migrants from rural areas, half a billion people left on farms,” said Anbang chairman Wu Xiaohui on Sunday at the Boao Forum in Hainan. “What about if we moved some of them to Canada rather than Beijing?”

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“So long as you’re Chinese and meet three conditions — no drugs, no gambling, no bad record — in principle we’ve got funds to lend,” he added.

Financial Times reported that through the “Million Euros Plan,” Wu intends to provide €1 million to would-be founders interested in opening businesses abroad. The businessman appeared calm on Sunday, despite the Chinese government’s recent clampdown on outbound investment and insurance companies, as he said that partnerships with foreign companies would be the new trend in China’s overseas business ventures.

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“When we go abroad we’re no longer using our own money,” Wu said, describing business with foreign investors. “We have a few asset management companies and many pension funds — similar to the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board — they have trade union money and they entrust international companies like us to manage their assets.”

According to state media, Wu has purportedly funded 10 such entrepreneurs.


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