Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
Good afternoon. I am the chief trade commissioner—newly appointed a couple of weeks ago—and the assistant deputy minister responsible for our trade commissioner service at Global Affairs Canada. I'm delighted to be able to speak to you today about our efforts to support Canadian businesses in their exporting journey.
Many of you may already be familiar with the trade commissioner service, but for those who are not, I'll provide a brief introduction to our work.
The TCS is a network of international business professionals who help Canadian businesses grow through international sales, commercial partnerships and investment. We provide four key services to our Canadian clients, free of charge. These are key market insights and practical business advice, opening the door to new business opportunities globally, identifying qualified contacts, and resolving business problems in foreign markets.
We also offer programs and services aimed at helping Canadian innovators secure the international research and development partnerships that help them turn their innovations into globally successful products and services.
The TCS also plays a key role in attracting job-creating foreign direct investment to Canada, in collaboration with Invest in Canada, other government departments and provincial, territorial and municipal governments.
In 2019-2020, the Trade Commissioner Service, or TCS, served 12,000 Canadian clients from 160 locations around the world, including six regional hub offices across Canada. We provide over 50,000 services to our clients each year, and are proud of our 91% client satisfaction rate. Ninety-three per cent of our clients are small and medium-sized enterprises.
Our analysis shows that the TCS contributes to our clients' exporting 20% more in value, selling to 25% more foreign markets and exporting 11% more product varieties than non-TCS clients. Research shows also that every dollar spent by the trade commissioner service results in $26 in increased exports.
I am pleased to speak to you today about how the TCS has supported Canadians during the pandemic and what we are doing to help Canada's businesses return to growth.
Since day one of the crisis, the TCS has put its international network and expertise to work in support of Canada's overall pandemic response. Having a strong network of trade commissioners abroad enabled the Government of Canada to quickly identify and engage the right suppliers of PPE and other life-saving equipment in the first months of the pandemic.
Our trade commissioners have also been able to help Canadian companies get Canada's own COVID-related products and services more rapidly into international markets. Through the TCS's Canadian COVID-19 capabilities directory, we are highlighting products and services of over 154 export-ready Canadian companies to foreign buyers. This initiative is helping us expand our exporter base in innovative sectors, such as life sciences, while also contributing to the international fight against COVID-19.
In addition to helping Canadian businesses continue exporting during the pandemic, the TCS also shifted gears to help companies find new international sources of supply for vital inputs. Not surprisingly, our problem-solving service requests from clients increased by 49% between April and August, compared with the same period in 2019. While COVID-19 has been a shock, the TCS's long-standing commitment to innovation meant that we were actually well positioned to take on the pandemic's challenges.
For example, helping more businesses grow their international sales through e-commerce has been a TCS priority in recent years. The expertise and capabilities we've developed in this area have enabled us to respond to the surge in interest in e-commerce resulting from the pandemic.
We've also long recognized the potential for digital modernization to enable us to deliver higher-value services, expand our client base and increase efficiency. Major overhauls to our online presence, digital tools, and service in the last year have positioned us to meet today's demand for more digital services and for more service and program delivery via virtual platforms. Indeed, services and programs across the trade commissioner service are adapting to meet the needs of Canadian businesses in today's context, while still advancing long-standing diversification and inclusive trade priorities.
The TCS has successfully transitioned from supporting traditional in-person business meetings to facilitating more virtual events, webinars and trade missions. For example, the trade commissioner service is continuing to promote Canada's women exporters by coordinating a virtual trade mission to South Korea. This mission will support first-time and experienced Canadian exporters and women entrepreneurs in their expansion to the South Korean market.
In response to restrictions on travel and in-person meetings, we have adjusted our popular CanExport-SME program to help SMEs cover the costs of attending virtual trade shows, engaging in e-commerce, and pursuing other activities needed to enter new markets in an increasingly “contactless” business world.
Despite COVID-19, we have also continued to expand the Canadian technology accelerator program, or CTA, with new programs established in Mexico City and Berlin. CTAs have quickly adapted to the realities of COVID-19. They continue serving high-potential Canadian tech firms through virtual programming, and will do so in the months ahead.
Canada is a trading nation. Goods and services exports are equivalent to 32% of Canada's GDP, and imports to 33%. One in six jobs is related to exports. Canada's recovery and long-term prosperity will depend on renewing our international trade, with an emphasis on continuing to diversify where we export, who exports and what we export. It will also depend on ensuring that Canada continues to attract job-creating FDI.
The TCS will remain focused on helping Canadian businesses increase their resiliency and maximize their recovery by diversifying into new overseas markets, particularly those made more accessible by agreements like CETA and the CPTPP.
Building on over 20 years of experience with the Business Women in International Trade (BWIT) initiative, the TCS will also continue helping exporters of all sizes and ownerships—including women, indigenous, visible minority, LGBTQ2 and youth exporters—expand into global markets. We will also continue positioning the TCS to better help the trade-driven scale-up of our firms in new and emerging sectors, such as digital and clean-tech.
Supporting scale-up for firms in these sectors will also mean continuing to help them find the right international partnerships to drive innovation, R and D, and commercialization. In partnership with Invest in Canada and others, we will also continue to position Canada as an attractive destination for the FDI that we'll need to reach our job creation and growth objectives.
The TCS has continued to learn, adapt, and apply new approaches and technology to serve clients through our 125-year history, and we plan on doing the same for the next 125 years.
Thank you again for the opportunity to join you today. I look forward to your questions.