At this point, Canada's position is still enviable, but competition is fierce. Some have already bet on the benefits of the maritime economy, establishing a national maritime strategy that draws on governments and departments to advance the maritime economy. On the one hand, they saw the sector's economic development potential. On the other hand, the blue economy is very closely linked to the green economy, and so sustainable development is quite often front and centre in the minds of researchers, developers and businesses active in the maritime economy.
That's also something we are seeing in the shipping sector. Concerns around sustainable shipping exist across the board. Canadian shipowners transit the world and must compete with all the other shipowners who have already implemented projects to save energy and optimize shipping routes, in order to cut costs. Those are the kinds of research projects we are working on in Canada, precisely to help our partners in industry remain competitive internationally.