Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. de Soto, for being with us. I have been a fan of yours for quite some time. I have here my copy of your Mystery of Capital book. I wish you could autograph it. It's well marked, and there are a lot of places in it where I would like to ask questions.
I'm hoping that I say this well and ask my question succinctly. I was in Ethiopia a month ago. I had the opportunity to visit a farm where Canadian development money is participating in an agricultural project and had a conversation with this Ethiopian farmer, who has certainly bettered his lifestyle for him and his family. He has built a house and actually has electricity and a television, which is quite remarkable for that part of Ethiopia. However, his problem is that he doesn't own the land, so he has no way of going to the bank and accessing capital to grow his dairy business, which he would very much like to see flourish. He can do it only in incremental amounts as he is able to save money--not capital--and reinforce his dairy herd. His dairy herd consists of three cows right now.
In your book, The Mystery of Capital, you talk specifically—on page 52, if I may say so—about “integrating dispersed information into one system”, and you say that North America has been able, through statutes, laws and regulations, to put together what is the “invisible” part of what we take for granted in our North American society.
So here is my question. We are looking at how to better help countries utilize development money, and we're specifically looking at how private enterprise is going to be part of that, but where can Canada best influence, then, in helping to create the legislative framework, or the regulation, or...? How do we counsel emerging economies to undertake these necessary steps that we take for granted?