There are two really, one conceptual and one very pragmatic or practical issue of bodies and services. Let me take them in reverse order.
The DFI will have to establish its own team over the coming months. The government will work closely with EDC to define the core functionalities of the DFI, and its core team headed by a CEO, or a head, for the organization. It will therefore need to figure out what its core mission is and what type of work it could actually “outsource”, if I could use that term, to EDC, things such as IT systems, HR, potentially even treasury functions.
You know, the scenario where through a service-level agreement EDC is actually providing back-office support, if I can put it that way. This has the virtue of accelerating the speed with which the organization can be stood up, rather than starting from scratch, as well as leaning on therefore a stable foundation and the institutional foundation and know-how that exists currently in EDC.
That was definitely part of the rationale for pursuing this model.
The other issue, though, is the relationship between EDC and the DFI on the ground, and the issue of risk. What I find interesting is that in many respects the trade mandate, and what's important here with the DFI is that the trade mandate needs to be and continue to be.... The integrity of the EDC trade mandate needs to be preserved and protected at all costs. We don't want EDC doing the types of things that DFI would do, because basically we would be running up against trade rules and being inconsistent with our obligations under the WTO. That's not to say that EDC isn't active in certain emerging markets, developing market contacts, but this is a different instrument that would be able to complement that.
The extent to which EDC takes on more risk, so long as it's consistent with trade rules and so forth, is a good thing, particularly from a development perspective.