Honourable Chair and distinguished members of the committee, good afternoon.
My name is Henry Liu, and I am the executive director of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Canada, based in Ottawa. We welcome this timely study, which will contribute to enhancing Canada's ties with the Indo-Pacific regions, including Taiwan.
The bilateral economic relation between Taiwan and Canada is growing strongly. According to Statistics Canada, our two-way trade surpassed $10 billion Canadian in 2021, growing by 39% compared with 2020. This ranks Taiwan as Canada's fifth-largest trading partner in Asia. Taiwan is also Canada's 16th-largest export market globally.
The Indo-Pacific region will be the engine of global economic growth. Thus, a commitment to closer engagement with Indo-Pacific partners is more relevant than ever. Canada has initiated an Indo-Pacific strategy, while Taiwan has launched its new southbound policy to boost its ties with the countries of South and Southeast Asia. These two policies are quite complementary and will open new avenues of co-operation.
Taiwan's long-standing partnership with Canada is critical to our mutual objectives and shared interests, including our efforts to work with like-minded partners to safeguard freedom, democracy and human rights, as well as to stimulate inclusive prosperity through economic co-operation and trade in the Indo-Pacific region.
We can strengthen this synergy by providing our economic operators a set of more transparent, predictable and facilitating trade and investment rules. On January 10, 2022, our trade ministers agreed to begin exploratory discussions as a first step toward potential negotiations for a bilateral investment agreement, known here as FIPA. We hope that Taiwan and Canada can fully launch negotiations on a FIPA soon.
Taiwan is the world's 18th-largest importing country, with 23 million consumers of high purchasing power. Canada can benefit a lot from more favourable market access into the Taiwanese market. Taiwan officially submitted its accession application to the CPTPP last September. Taiwan is committed to upholding the high standards of the CPTPP. We respectfully request Canada's support for Taiwan's accession application.
Taiwan's CPTPP membership and FIPA with Canada will help increase regional economic momentum and bring Taiwan-Canada trade relations to the next level. In this era of geopolitical uncertainty and supply chain realignments, Canada and Taiwan can work together to increase their supply chain resilience.
Canada has long been a reliable and secure source of quality agricultural products for Taiwan, bringing our consumers more diverse choices and enhancing our food security. In addition, Canada's budget 2022 proposed up to $3.8 billion in support over eight years to implement Canada's first critical mineral strategy. Already, Taiwan's increasing demand of critical minerals has attracted more imports from reliable sources, including Canada.
Canadian exports of cobalt to Taiwan grew 186% in 2021, compared to the year before. The Canadian cobalt market share in Taiwan increased from 3% in 2012 to 25% in 2021. Taiwan wishes to expand its relationship with Canada as a close friend, democratic partner and trusted ally. We look forward to continued engagement with our Canadian partners to sustain and strengthen our bilateral relations.
Thank you very much for inviting me today. I will be happy to answer your questions.