Foreign Affairs committee  Yes. I serve as Somali's permanent representative to UN-Habitat. I think what we can do, and what you can do to help achieve this, is to designate Somalia as one of the priority countries for development. I think Canada can do that. By any measure, I think we qualify to be trea

Foreign Affairs committee  We have unlimited natural resources. In the fishery sector, for example, we have the longest coastline on the continent. We have untapped resources in oil and in the seas, in both the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea. The overall blue economy in Somalia is—

Foreign Affairs committee  The blue economy, marine resources.

Foreign Affairs committee  Second is agriculture. We have nine million hectares; we've only utilized one million so far, so there's huge potential. We are the largest livestock exporter to the Middle East. We exported over five million animals last year.

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes, and iron resources.

Foreign Affairs committee  There's also a potential for renewable energy in the country. Throughout the year, there's strong radiation, strong solar, a strong sun that we can utilize to produce energy. The resources are endless. What we need is the capacity to utilize these resources. If we focus on the f

Foreign Affairs committee  I can say it in three parts. Number one is the special bond between Canada and Somalia. We are one of the largest African diasporas in Canada. Number two, we are strategically located, so any investment you make into Somalia's long-term stability will yield results very quickly

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you very much. I know that in Ottawa Centre, you have a large Somali constituency. I have family members who live in that riding.

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes. In fact, my mother lives in that area also, so thank you.

Foreign Affairs committee  You are right about inclusive politics. We actually have several subunits under that, and around 10 ministers are dedicated to those issues—the constitutional review process, elections, and also federalism as a whole, through reconciliation and other areas. These are all active p

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes.

Foreign Affairs committee  I know Sharmaarke very well. I used to be his mentor at school, at Carleton.

Foreign Affairs committee  I think that's a really good question. Security and economic growth are interlinked. You cannot have one without the other. What we have done so far.... When we came into office we had over $5 billion in debt from many years ago, and we still have. What we initiated is we put to

Foreign Affairs committee  We all pay taxes from these payments. We have instituted value-added taxes for the first time. The tax brackets went up in some other areas that had never been taxed before. You can see that the economy really went up, if you look at the government's revenue. The GDP has increase

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you. In terms of the internal security situation, if you looked at Somalia two years ago or three years ago and then today, you would see a huge difference. We are making significant progress on the security situation. For example, two years ago I moved back to Mogadishu,