International Trade committee  Maybe I'll just jump in quickly. I think he's exactly right. As Michel says we do have a Canadian direct investment abroad program that allows us to finance a Canadian company's investment in the purchase of a foreign sub to really help grow their footprint. That's available for

International Trade committee  For us it's fairly simple math in terms of the economics behind it. You're exactly right. For every dollar of export, you generate a certain number of Canadian jobs. It is looking at doubling the number of exports to emerging markets. We're at roughly 10,000. You're looking at ro

International Trade committee  Yes, and on the South Korea front a little bit more so, in particular in the ICT, information and communications technology space, with LG and Samsung, and others as foreign buyers. As we know, it was ratified on January 1, so it's in force. There has been lots of interest from

International Trade committee  Perhaps I can provide just a very specific example of what Susan was referring to. In November, EDC signed an $850-million facility with Vodafone out of the U.K., the world's second-largest telecoms provider. Of that facility, $100 million was set aside specifically to attract C

International Trade committee  Yes, the sessions are videotaped. As well, there is background material made available through a deck style of presentation.

International Trade committee  Thank you for the question. Certainly the last few months have been a bit of a challenge for many businesses of all sizes, but in particular SMEs have the fewest reserves or wherewithal to withstand the fluctuations in currency changes. At EDC we do offer a number of financial p

International Trade committee  Thank you. They have been very interesting sessions to this point. I think you're exactly right to suggest that the CEO is also the guy who runs the mailroom and who does the laundry, if it's required. That is the nature of the individuals who are there. The feedback we've bee

International Trade committee  The 50 I mentioned are in the mentoring program. Those are the ones that have what we call a “white glove service,” which means they have a dedicated relationship manager who will meet with them. Almost all of them would be in the small and very small categories.

International Trade committee  It's very similar, from our perspective. I'd maybe just add a little bit in the agricultural services equipment sector as well as in the extractive space. That would be in oil and gas and in mining. That's more in terms of supply for equipment.

International Trade committee  Certainly. I'll take a stab at that one. We heard one of my colleagues mention that there are approximately 1.1 million SMEs currently active in Canada, which seems like a very large number. When you actually drill down into that number a bit and you look at the SMEs that are a

International Trade committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm Todd Winterhalt, group vice-president for international business development at EDC. Allow me to begin today by providing a brief explanation of Canada's official export credit agency. EDC provides financing, insurance and bonding solutions to underwri

International Trade committee  Thank you for the question. I might actually turn to my colleague, Mark Bolger, who has been present and active in working with EDC in Asia, and South Asia in particular, for the better part of the last 15 years, if not slightly longer. Mark, perhaps you could add some comment

International Trade committee  Thank you very much, honourable member, for the question. I would start my response by saying I think it is absolutely essential that both ends of the equation are considered here. We do tend to focus on the opportunity side of the equation, the target market or the destination

International Trade committee  In terms of non-tariff barriers, it probably won't seem all that surprising to you. Certainly, what we encounter most often, and what we see our Canadian clients faced with most often, are things like the bureaucracy. That is, as I mentioned, endemic in terms of trying to obtain

International Trade committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and honourable members, for inviting EDC to appear before the committee today. We certainly appreciate your interest in Export Development Canada's activities in support of deepening Canada's trade agenda with India. Over the past seven years, we