I'll take two minutes.
Barclays Bank houses its entire IT department in Kiev, Ukraine. Your national brand name, Canadian Tire, uses IT support from Ukraine extensively. In fact, internationally recognized applications such as WhatsApp, PayPal, and Petcube were all developed in Ukraine.
In terms of international trade specific to Canada and Ukraine, the largest milestone of the last quarter century's work was reached on August 1, 2017, with the Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement taking effect. Not only is this a pinnacle of the Canada-Ukraine Chamber of Commerce 25-year legacy, but the result of tireless work in conjunction with the governments of Canada and Ukraine for the last seven years.
The Canada-Ukraine trade and investment support project, CUTIS, is an initiative of CUCC and the Conference Board of Canada with funding from the federal government. It is a five-year initiative to promote said trade and investment. With offices in Toronto and Kiev, there's a great momentum and drive to see the free trade agreement exceed expectations. In the last eight months of this year, there has been increased bilateral trade, with about 71% growth both ways.
I must underline to this committee the importance of projects like CUTIS as an indispensable tool to the success of the Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement. While the Government of Ukraine does its part in providing technical support, it lacks the resources currently to economically support business development programs.
CUTIS puts forward Canadian values to Ukraine. Things like environment and gender equality, which have never been looked at seriously in Ukraine, are now part of the project.
In conclusion, I would like to thank the House of Commons international trade committee for this invitation to make a contribution to its study on multicultural international trade. I trust my statements have painted a pristine picture of the contributions made by Ukrainians to Canada and the benefits their participation make to its economic growth.
In terms of export development, the greatest resource for successful economic growth will be strong stewardship of programs, such as CUTIS, which in turn gives substantive affirmation to the Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement.
The Canada-Ukraine Chamber of Commerce has endeavoured successfully to build bridges between the two nations for the last quarter century. It will continue to foster business-to-business growth and development between the same, as we go forward.
Support of the Government of Canada and committees like yours for organizations like the Canada-Ukraine Chamber of Commerce is paramount to that success.
Thank you very much for your time.