Thank you, Jan.
As the board’s trade services arm, we focus on programs and supports that help businesses scale up and access growth markets. While we develop and launch these programs in Toronto, we also work with partner chambers and world trade centres and economic development agencies and so on across Canada to make sure that these programs are delivered nationally.
We’ve created the award-winning trade accelerator program, which has helped more than 1,200 Canadian businesses become trade-ready, with proprietary export plans. Through more than 21 World Trade Centre-run business missions, we have connected hundreds of these companies to targeted customers in international markets, delivering great commercial results.
When the pandemic struck, shuttering store fronts, halting international travel and disrupting supply chains, we like others moved our programs online. Doing so included taking our trade missions virtual. Just since that time, more than 200 businesses have participated in our virtual trade accelerator programs across Canada, and more than 120 have joined virtual missions.
Moving our programs online also helped us to see that many of the SMEs we are trying to help are really, truly, lagging behind in their digital capabilities. This led us to create the recovery activation program to help businesses understand where and how to go digital. To date, more than 900 Ontario businesses have joined this program to learn how to digitize their front, middle and back offices. Let me share just a few examples of our program's impact.
Signarama from Peterborough applauds the recovery activation program for providing the practical tools and mentorship needed to address the COVID challenges to their operations. Signifi Solutions from Mississauga credits our trade accelerator program for developing their export plan and activating international contact in growth markets for their cloud-enabled vending systems. Finally, there is Greenlid from Toronto, which joined 26 other companies for a clean-tech mission to Mexico and credited the program for the opportunity to meet with qualified buyers to develop the market for their compostable kitchen greenhouse.
I'll go back to you, Jan.