Foreign Affairs committee  If you want specifics, I can name a few off the top of my head, We have a Canadian company here, Solar Panda, that's doing great work on solar panels. It's doing extremely well. It had some ups and downs on the energy side in west Africa, as well as central Africa and the DRC. Manitoba Hydro International was actually running the transmission grid in Nigeria for some time.

Foreign Affairs committee  That's just a quick list. Thank you.

Foreign Affairs committee  I could jump in first. Thank you very much. It's a really interesting observation. My last posting was as high commissioner to Nigeria. I saw the tremendous amount of oil production that they have there and the fact that there's very little value added. I think that speaks more generally to an area where Canada can work closely with African countries that have a multitude of natural resources—a wealth of it—but do not add value for their own use.

Foreign Affairs committee  I'm not really an expert on FinDev's accountability structure, but I guess, as a semi-autonomous organization, it would not be the same as a development project. But what—

Foreign Affairs committee  Possibly. I think in Africa and with some African countries, whether FinDev is a solution or others, you need greater flexibility. I also talked about EDC de-risking and allowing more money to flow to support commercial transactions. I won't really answer your question directly.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you, MP. You understand this very well even from a personal level. It's very important to work with and identify individuals probably in every large Canadian corporation. I was talking to somebody who happened to be from Kenya, who was quite senior in one of our big banks, for example.

Foreign Affairs committee  I think I would agree that you have to focus. There are countries where we can achieve success and a platform and where there are building blocks for trade. We have to start with things like foreign investment protection agreements and double taxation agreements and then work towards free trade agreements and also look at tools that are another step towards a free trade agreement like the U.S. model of a trade and investment framework agreement, which is really just the stage below a full FTA.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you, MP. I'll try to be quick because I know time is short. One always has to work on a brand. You can't take it for granted. I think that in order to strengthen our brand we have to find constant ways to engage and to be listening—which I believe we are—in terms of what our African partners are looking for.

Foreign Affairs committee  I think we're not sure who goes first. Go ahead, Michael.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you. I could follow on, if that's all right. I would agree that it's a highly competitive environment. Kenya is a more advanced country. We see very active involvement, for example, from a country like Turkey or from the Gulf states. They're very present and their presence is known.

Foreign Affairs committee  With the regional economic communities, we have to recognize that they have some strengths and many weaknesses. The parts are bigger than the whole, but there are opportunities to work with them. For example, when Ms. Joly was here, she engaged with IGAD on Sudan. There are still opportunities where we may be able to carve out a little bit of a leadership role for IGAD to play in that area.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you, PS Oliphant. I think our biggest challenge is probably developing more interest and engagement from Canada, whether it be from companies and civil society, or in government-to-government relations. There are many distractions in the world right now, and many challenges.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you very much, MP Aboultaif. I remember our meeting very well. It's good to see you again.

Foreign Affairs committee  In terms of focusing on countries, we know the ones that are doing well. I live in one of them, Kenya, right now. I could name a couple of others. There are models where the economy is more advanced, and I think that's where we can establish a foothold. Thank you.