Our research suggests that if you can't compete at home, you can't compete abroad, which is why we invariably start with reducing barriers within the Canadian economy. That's pretty simple. That would allow even small businesses to serve a larger domestic audience and to become more efficient and more competitive. That really is the starting point. Then you're in a better position to go abroad.
In this report on service exports, we drilled into health management systems and education. Education is a great example. Australia has seen a spectacular takeoff in the number of foreign kids in education, either by bringing them to Australia or by having campuses go abroad. They have a national strategy. They've come up with a national Australian brand. It's not a state brand, because there are seven or eight states in Australia, just as there are ten provinces in Canada. New South Wales does not go to China to try and sell education services; Australia goes to China.
There's an area where you have to get into the guts of the sector and identify the barriers that exist. Foreign students who come to Canada pay differential fees, but only recently have we allowed them to look for jobs and made it easier for them to stay and become Canadian citizens afterwards. So you have to really look at the elements in a given sector and figure out the domestic barriers that are preventing you from becoming more competitive internationally.
We did the same sort of work around business process outsourcing, and around transportation.
I keep coming back to the domestic performance agenda, because really, if you cannot compete at home, you're never going to find clients abroad.