Yes, indeed. I think our ambassador to Panama would probably tell you that the subcontracting opportunity is key for us. Those consortia are pretty big even by Canadian standards. What we're looking for is opportunities to subcontract within entities that are making and obtaining these bigger contracts.
EDC has opened up a regional office in Panama covering Central America and the Caribbean, so they are well placed to assist. Those are the kinds of opportunities we are looking for. But we are positioning ourselves now for the future. This economy is going to grow. The projections on infrastructure alone are significant.
I want to come back to one point: I represent a region where the majority of our free trade agreements are with the Americas. Now, if you put a Canada-Panama FTA up against a CETA or the NAFTA, of course you're not going to compare. It's comparing apples and oranges. We are dealing with smaller economies. We are looking for opportunities with the big economies, and we have FTAs with Colombia and Peru. We're talking to the Mercosur Group.
I think the trade will grow, and investment follows trade. The important point for the Canadian business community is that these are confidence-building measures. They give clarity, rules of the road, and opportunities for the Canadian companies. They make the investor community more comfortable going abroad.
It's also a “small p” political statement. We are building confidence and working with like-minded governments in the region, and we're establishing an extensive network of free trade agreements we can work with. So it is true that the numbers on trade are small now, but the potential is there. Much more important, they are also building confidence and opening up new investment opportunities.