Even at the global level, if you look at the investment in research and development in Canada as a proportion of gross national product, we're running at around 2% and decreasing. We reached a peak in 2001, I think, whereas countries like Sweden and our competitors are up at around 4%. Even at the overall level, we're still not where we should be, so we cannot afford to reduce investment in the universities and in the academic sector. We have to maintain that. It's keeping pace with inflation, but barely.
The real problem is in the private sector. We have proposed a number of measures that would encourage the commercialization of intellectual property developed in research and development. That will feed back into itself. Once companies succeed, they start pumping money back into the research and development side. RIM, the producer of the BlackBerry, is a very good example of that. We need more of those companies. There have been a number of good recommendations made for providing a better investment climate so companies can succeed. The key is venture capital and so-called angel capital.
We don't have enough people in this country willing to invest their private funds in risky ventures. Somehow or other we need to change that.