Thank you, Madam Chairman, and members of the committee.
I represent both the Canada-Israel Industrial R and D Foundation and International Science and Technology Partnerships Canada, two organizations mandated by the Government of Canada to deliver an important economic development program which has relevance to budget 2013, and hence my presence here.
This program is aimed at connecting Canadian technology-based firms with counterparts in four countries: Israel, India, China, and Brazil. They were chosen because they're important trade, commercial, market, and technological partners. The rationale is simple: technological partnerships are effective ways of achieving a dual objective, thus staying at the leading edge of innovation through the pooling of know-how and accessing important new markets through strategic partnerships.
What have we achieved and learned?
Our initial experience with Israel, which began 10 years before the three other countries, has demonstrated that a modest but focused investment of only one million dollars per year by Canada, matched by our counterparts in Israel, has resulted in economic value defined by sales, investment, and market access that is estimated to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars, through the support of 90 bilateral R and D projects.
Just as a case study, of which we have many, SiGe, an information and communication technology company in Ontario, through a $500,000 grant for a project with an Israeli semiconductor design leader, has gained 30% market share for laptop power amplifier applications. It generated $10 million in sales per year, resulting in $290 million in investment and acquisition and maintaining 60 jobs in Canada.
Indeed, our experience with Israel has shown that such a program has paid off in a manner that exceeds most, if not all, instruments of economic and innovation policy. We've applied this approach, still with very modest funding levels, to India, China, and Brazil. The results are early, but indicate the following—