Afghanistan committee  In all candour, our focus is to figure out a way to operate in the country for the people who are remaining there.

Afghanistan committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Brunelle-Duceppe. It is a very serious question and a very serious problem. One thing I hope the committee might look at with some focus is how we can create a predictable, enduring and flexible framework for Canadian actors, the government and others, to operate in the country.

Afghanistan committee  Mr. Chairman, my sense is that we're going to have to have a pretty robust set of responses to this. We basically have a situation where we have a policy agreement that we should mount a very significant response and a legal impediment to doing so. We need to bridge that gap. I think we have to ask Parliament to act in probably a series of ways, but what I would say is that this should be an enduring fix.

Afghanistan committee  Mr. Chairman, we are present in the country, as I've indicated. Our posture has been from the very beginning to be proactively communicative, to be transparent and open, with the de facto authorities about what we're doing and why. This allows us to continue to operate in the country and to safeguard our staff and our beneficiaries.

Afghanistan committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and all of you for inviting me to share some perspectives on the committee's work, based on the Aga Khan development network's extensive and long-standing presence in Afghanistan. Our work to improve the quality of life of Afghans stretches back 30 years, and our commitment to be present in the country today remains firm and permanent.

Foreign Affairs committee  Mr. Chairman, let me begin by clarifying the premise of the question, which I appreciate. My understanding is that the committee is looking at the broad question of the role of the private sector in achieving international development objectives. I think Professor Brown and I have taken different approaches to answering that question.

Foreign Affairs committee  Mr. Chairman, I think our supports to countries are different depending on the situation they're in. I think you're right that in a time of a humanitarian crisis, there are certain things you have to prioritize. At other points in a country's development, you begin to include other kinds of supports.

Foreign Affairs committee  Obviously, agribusiness is a big area. Again, I don't think it necessarily means large, corporatized farms. I think what we're talking about here is how you can help small-holder farmers aggregate their input in an intelligent way and get value out of it. We're seeing a lot of experiments, and French beans is an example.

Foreign Affairs committee  Mr. Chairman, thank you. I do think that one of the impacts of intelligent and thoughtful private sector activity in the developing world is that it has ripple effects. I would like to say, though, that I don't think it is an automatic outcome. I think they have to be designed this way.

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes.

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes, the Nairobi Serena Hotel.

Foreign Affairs committee  The other, in Afghanistan, the Kabul Serena Hotel, was an early investment, partly also to try to spur a whole series of other private sector investors in the country at a fragile time. I think the other requirement is that you have to have long timeframes. I don't think you can run this kind of private enterprise with simply a quarterly earnings mindset.

Foreign Affairs committee  —“and this way, you can plan for your future.” Then what Frigoken does is it invests in a processing plant centrally. It gathers all the produce, brings it centrally, and then processes it in a way that is in accordance with what their marketing specialists are telling them will sell in Europe.

Foreign Affairs committee  I would just make the distinction, Mr. Chairman, that the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development, which owns these companies, takes very little grant money from governments. We have very significant not-for-profit activities in health, education, rural development, and microfinance, etc., where we've worked with CIDA and many other donors for many, many years.

Foreign Affairs committee  I think there are certain goals they are seeking to achieve and they can achieve them through these companies.