Mr. Chair and distinguished members of the committee, I am pleased to be here with you today in support of your study on competing globally: opportunities for small and medium-sized businesses.
I would first like to say a few words about the BDC and then provide you with an overview of our activities geared toward improving the export potential of Canadian SMEs.
BDC is the only bank in Canada entirely dedicated to meeting the needs of entrepreneurs, with a focus on SMEs. While we have greater risk appetite than other financial institutions, BDC has to be commercially viable as it does not receive government appropriation to run its daily operations. In fact, BDC has paid more than $363 million in dividends to the Government of Canada since 1997. Our 30,000 clients generate $192 billion in annual revenue, of which $22 billion is in export revenue, and are responsible for more than 674,000 direct jobs in Canada. In fact, approximately 16%, or 5,000, of our clients are exporters.
As previously expressed by my colleagues, global competitiveness is key to the continued success of Canadian SMEs. On the other hand, Canadian firms face some important hurdles. The first one is the lack of scale and small size of our businesses; in fact, more than 98% have less than 100 employees. The second challenge is that the Canadian market is relatively small, which implies that in order to grow their businesses our firms have to start exporting a lot sooner than their U.S. counterparts. A good example of this is that an SME based in California has access to a market the size of Canada strictly within their own state boundaries.
Expanding into foreign markets requires an additional level of market understanding and resources if the SME wants to be successful. Going abroad also entails assuming a greater level of risk for SMEs. Therefore, we believe our role as a development bank is to help compensate for this lack of scale by linking our SMEs to the appropriate resources, while adjusting our service offerings to their particular needs. Given these challenges, BDC has recently adjusted its offerings to better respond to the specific needs of Canadian SMEs. These can be broken down into two categories: helping entrepreneurs define the right strategy consistent with their objectives, and offering financial support to help them make the required investment.
On the advisory services side we have the following offering. First, we help SMEs determine whether they are ready to expand internationally. Second, if they are, we help them select the markets that represent the best chance for success. Finally, we can help these SMEs develop go-to-market strategies for these specific markets. These affordable services are paid for by the SMEs and we work in collaboration with the trade commissioner service and EDC to optimize the value.
On the financing side, BDC is able to support domestic investments required to, for instance, ramp up production capacity or even help finance the investments to be made abroad, which, in many instances, are purely unsecured financing with no collateral attached. BDC works with EDC and DFATD to help Canadian firms expand abroad in line with the government's global markets action plan. A good example of this is our support to the Canadian technology accelerator program put forward by DFATD in the U.S. for technology-based firms. Another example of this is the fact that BDC holds some trade commissioners in our offices in Canada.
While we believe that our current offerings are relevant, we continuously benchmark ourselves with other development banks from around the world to learn from them how better to support SMEs.
In closing, BDC is a strong believer in the importance of having more successful Canadian exporters and we believe the bank has an important role to play in making this a reality. This is why we will continue investing in resources to increase SME awareness of the benefits of exporting and provide them with the support they need.
That concludes my presentation.
I would be happy to answer any questions you may have later on.
Thank you.