As for measuring our work, we do that as I just explained. There’s a way to measure all the services provided, whether by exporters or people we work with in the provinces and communities. Currently, many Canadian communities are very active in terms of economic development.
We work in either our regional offices or our missions abroad on promoting industries present across Canada. For instance, the Premier of Quebec recently visited China and mentioned the Plan Nord, a project aimed at prioritizing communities in northern Quebec. Trade is first and foremost a partnership, be it with our provincial partners or with communities and companies.
As a consequence, we're always ready to work with local firms to help them find market opportunities. If you're a small company in the Pontiac and you have a product that you would like to be able to market, we would first suggest you meet with our regional office. We would see if the company were export-ready, then if the company was export-ready we would assist it in finding market opportunities. We would work with that firm through the services we provide to see if we could find a créneau for the company to export its goods to. We're fully aware that in this country where 56% of our GDP is exported, for firms to be profitable, for firms to grow, they have to be thinking about exporting.
One of the very interesting challenges that my minister and my colleagues face is how to sell a free service. We will provide service to anybody who meets the basic criteria, from anywhere in Canada. As you saw in my presentation, a firm that works with us is much more successful than a firm that doesn't.
That's the context, and I hope that addresses the question.