Thank you for the question.
When I was head of mission in Honduras, I had the opportunity to visit several of the major development projects we have ongoing there. As you mentioned, Honduras is a country of focus. The department that used to be called CIDA had a list of top-20 countries of focus, and Honduras was one of them because the need there is so great. There are some terrific projects going on there with respect to maternal, newborn, and child health. We work directly with the Honduran Red Cross to support programming with the World Food Programme, the so-called school feeding programs for malnourished children in the rural areas, where they're now attracted to come to school to get breakfast because of food programming that Canada is co-sponsoring with the World Food Programme.
Leading to what you asked about with respect to the opportunities under the free trade agreement, we also have development cooperation programs that help Honduran coffee growers exploit international markets. We're working with cacao producers to help them develop more sustainable ways to grow their local cacao product.
Turning to Canadian investment in the country, Gildan—and I believe you will be hearing from representatives of Gildan later today—is currently the largest private sector employer in the country. It has roughly 20,000 employees in Honduras, creating jobs and opportunities there. Gildan is seen as a very attractive employer in the country. Hondurans want those jobs. The Government of Honduras at that time was very supportive of all the activities of the Canadian government with respect to the development cooperation program I outlined, and the private-sector investment from Gildan. The Honduran government saw Canada as a very important partner for them in trying to address some of the very serious challenges they face, as was outlined earlier by another member of the committee.