Finance committee  Yes, we were thinking of it as a possibility. I was speaking to some folks at the Bank of China about a Canadian company that wanted to invest in China. Instead of borrowing Canadian dollars, converting to renminbi, and making that investment there, they could issue bonds in renm

Finance committee  A lot of mainland Chinese companies and banks, particularly the banks, are listed already in Hong Kong, and I think there are a couple of Chinese companies that are listed in New York. I'm not an expert in this. I think we might see more but I'm not sure it makes a big difference

Finance committee  It's just the conversion costs. The Chinese buyer has to convert into U.S. dollars, and then someone has to convert into U.S. dollars. So it's just the conversion.

Finance committee  Well, first it's the conversion costs from the double conversion. That alone is about 1%.

Finance committee  You're right; there are certain companies that are perfectly happy to pay in U.S. dollars. What we're saying is that for certain companies in China it is sometimes easier to borrow in RMB than it would be to borrow U.S. dollars.

Finance committee  That's why we're saying that in certain circumstances they can do more business. If you're a retailer—

Finance committee  No, you're right. It may not be ideal for Peller Estates; that's true.

Finance committee  Yes, in trade financing—

Finance committee  It is exciting, and it is about small business. During the Prime Minister's trip to China, our CEO, Perrin Beatty, hosted a moderated talk with Jack Ma, the head of Alibaba, which people often call the Chinese Amazon. In fact, Amazon only has $90 billion in revenue, and Alibaba

Finance committee  We hope so. We've heard from the banks that they're excited about it, and they want to get geared up and make sure that they have—

Finance committee  Well, yes, but March 23 is ICBC actually launching and saying that this hub is available. The banks have, I think, already started making sure that they have the services in place. When we were doing our report on the renminbi, what we wanted was to have companies announcing that

Finance committee  I'd like to add something to Mr. Harder's comments. Regarding the volume of transactions, since there is quite a large clientele in the United States, if Canadian banks could increase transactions with the United States and see to it that many of those transactions and trades wi

Finance committee  There are 450 local chambers all across the country and there's a network of 200,000 businesses.

Finance committee  Sure. Absolutely. I think you're right. That's really going to be the key, to see how fast we see the uptake. We've seen incredible uptake at some of the other hubs in the U.K. or in Australia, but it does take a multi-pronged approach. As I said, at the chamber, we've really

Finance committee  Absolutely. We actually did a joint event with CCBC, where we were speaking to business. There was a lot of enthusiasm. It is incumbent on the banks and all of us to work together to spread the word about this because there's been an issue of awareness. We all have a responsibi