Absolutely. The two other jurisdictions we have done business with are China—I don't know if you can really call it an emerging market anymore or not, but we could call it an emerged market—and the Middle East. There are a couple of points there.
Each of these jurisdictions has its own unique challenges. On the Chinese side, the language barrier aside, even their legal system is very challenging. Their state-owned intervention creates a big predicament for Canadian companies going there. It's a positive as well as a negative, because the financing gets easier and the licensing gets easier, but then again you're in bed with a state-owned entity, which is not typically the way we do business here. Even if you are with a “private entity” there, it will still have some state-owned backing. That always becomes a challenge in China, I have found.
On the Middle Eastern side, their issues are more to do with general perception, what the people want, how to keep the people happy within the state. It's not driven by a business element. They have a social and a business element to it, which are very different from the situation in India. In India, if you are dealing with a private enterprise, there is a profit motive and a transaction motive. In the Middle East, it will be more about, “If I am doing this, how do I look in the eyes of the ruling party, or the sheik, or whoever the supreme head is?” That consideration is paramount within the actual business transaction.
Every jurisdiction has its own unique elements. India, in some ways, is much easier to do business with. On the other hand, you find an equal number of challenges. But I find that on balance, if I had to rank them in terms of ease of doing business, it would probably be Middle East, India, and then China, in my book.
