The authors also wish to thank Ron Parker and Renée St-Jacques of Industry Canada, Kevin Page of the Privy Council Office, Elisha Ram of Finance Canada and Larry Schembri of the Bank of Canada for many helpful comments. [...] The lasting interest implies the existence of a long-term relationship between the direct investor and the enterprise in a foreign country and entails a significant degree of influence on the management of the enterprise. [...] Dramatic reductions in transportation and communication costs, rapid advances in product and process technologies, fierce international competition for markets and factors of production and increased liberalization of trade and investment regimes in all countries are driving the organization of firms’ economic activities on a global basis. [...] The activities of MNEs are concentrated; the top 100 global MNEs accounted for between 11 to 16 percent of the estimated foreign assets, sales and employment of all MNEs operating in the world in 2004. [...] It is interesting to note that the rate of increase in M&A activities (sales) between 2004 and 2005 in Canada at 37% was significantly smaller than in the world (88%) and in the US (62%).