Thanks, Madam Chair.
Hi, everybody. My name is Markiyan Markevych. I'm principal and president of Crossways MK Consulting, an investment consulting business. I've been doing business in Ukraine since 2014. I sit on the board of the Canada-Ukraine Chamber of Commerce, and I've been heavily involved with investment and trade between Ukraine and Canada, with investments for about $400 million, since 2014—direct investments into multiple industries.
I would like to focus my attention on three different topics, briefly.
The first is that it's been tough with what's going on, and we received the invitation before the war broke out. We are talking about free trade agreements, and I've been heavily utilizing that. Our companies have been utilizing the free trade agreement, and now the circumstances are a little different. I just came back from Poland, where I've been for the last three weeks. It's unfortunate times. Nevertheless, I think we have to focus on helping Ukraine and the Ukrainian people in the meantime, and focus on the future. This is very important.
Ukraine will win this war, 100%, and it will be an independent, democratic state.
Even prior to the war, what Ukraine needed was investments. I know we're talking about free trade, but this is all tied up. Ukraine has brains, hands and grains, and it needs help. The specific help that I'm talking about is the EDC. Ukrainian companies need the trade credit insurance, expert financing, which will enable Canadian and Ukrainian companies to do this efficiently, more effectively and in greater schemes.
Another area I've been involved in is through the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, with the CUTIS program. GAC and CUCC partnered together for the CUTIS program, Canada-Ukraine investment and trade support. I think we need more of these programs.
The program has been very successful. We have increased investments tremendously. We have increased trade over the last four years. We need more programs like that to help Ukrainian and Canadian companies.
When we talk about bilateral trade between Canada and Ukraine, I think the area that is very much in need is services. Specifically, Ukraine has probably one of the best procurement systems in the world, called ProZorro. CUCC is trying to set up ProZorro systems through which Canadian companies can directly bid on projects in Ukraine. Again, EDC comes into the picture, with its arsenal, its weapons, to help Canadian companies manage and work effectively in that field.
On the last one, more specifically when talking about trade, one type of company that Canadian investors are directly involved in is agriculture companies. There are specific products in agriculture. I'm going to be very specific here: There are dry egg shells, which come in three different forms. That can be looked into extensively. Right now, there are tariffs on them, and if we eliminated that.... Those are products that have a long life—24 years. That can be looked into as an angle for Ukraine, Canada and the U.S., where Canadian-Ukrainian products can be exported to and imported from Canada under no-name labels. It could be a great working relationship with the Canadian companies, providing three-way trade.
That's all for me. Thanks, Madam Chair.