 You all get extra points for that. I'm Dan Rundy. I hold the Shrier Chair at CSIS. I'm very, very appreciative that all of you have come at such an early hour. Please take a seat, Minister, and please take a seat, my friend, JP Prosper. We are hosting this conference in partnership with the Government of Canada. Thank you very much, Canada. Welcome Minister Paradi, who is the Minister of International Development for the Canadian Government as part of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development, DFATD, as it's known, and my very good friend JP Prosper is with us as well. We're expecting Minister Ba, the Minister of Finance of Senegal, shortly. This is a very interesting conversation. We've had a very strong turnout of about 300 folks RSVP'd for this event. I think reflecting the fact that these are demand-driven topics in international development. These topics that we've chosen are topics in line with the post-2015 MDGs and the post-Busan global partnership. For those of you that follow these things, I think these are some very interesting topics that countries like Canada, countries like Australia, countries such as the Nordic countries that are donors, have an outsized contribution to make in these demand-driven topics. These are topics that deserve more attention in Washington. These are also topics that no one country, whether it's the United States or Canada or others, can work on alone. I want to just touch on each of the topics we're going to be covering in our agenda, and then we're going to go, I'm going to turn the floor over to Minister Paradi to make some remarks. Doesn't give the Francophonie or the community of Portuguese-speaking countries, it doesn't get the same sort of attention they might deserve. I think the conversation we're going to be having opportunities and challenges in the Francophonie, I think will be quite interesting to look at some of the development challenges. You have translation sets, Minister Paradi has asked us to conduct this conversation in French. I think it's appropriate. I think it will be very interesting. My French is not so good, so I'm going to ask the questions in English, but I think our respondents are going to respond in French. So you will actually want to use your translation devices for that. On the issue of trade and development, this is an issue that we've been working on for over a year. We have a congressional task force report coming out on how to strengthen U.S. trade capacity-building capabilities going forward in future trade deals, of which I hope there are many. We also, on the issue of managing extractive wealth in 2013, there was an estimated $730 billion of global mining revenues, much of it in the developing world, something like five times the amount of all foreign assistance. In Africa, 51 of 54 countries have ongoing or planned oil and gas exploration. And export data from, for example, 2010 indicates that about almost 60 percent of crude oil exports come from the developing world. So managing oil, gas, and mining wealth is a critical challenge in development. If you said to me, is this going to be more relevant or less relevant in the next five years, it's going to be more relevant. Well, Canada and Australia and Norway, for example, have a lot to teach us about how to manage these important resources. And so I think we're really appreciative that we're going to have this conversation as well. Science and technology, 15 years ago, if anyone said that there would be widespread cell phone use in Africa, I think people would have shrugged that off. Ten years ago, if we talked about something like M-Pesa, which is a payment system in a number of countries starting in Kenya, people would have shrugged that off and wouldn't have believed it. Canada, Australia, the Nordics, the UK, and the U.S. all have something to share. And oftentimes, science, technology, and innovation is a two-way street. So we're going to be having a very interesting conversation about science, technology, and innovation. Finally, we're going to be talking about the fact that nine out of 10 jobs in the developing world are in the private sector. So how we work and partner and support the private sector is an important part of development. We've spent three or four years here at CSIS working on these issues. And for those G7 countries that don't have development finance instruments or development finance instrument capabilities, this is a real opportunity to think about how to strengthen those or build those. My good friend, Elizabeth Littlefield, who's the CEO of OPIC and is truly a great leader in international development, will be making some remarks about DFI's at lunchtime. So please stick around for that. But without further ado, I'm going to turn the floor over to my good friend, Minister Paradis, who's flown in from Ottawa to be with us. Minister, over to you. Pleasure to be here today at this conference called Major Drivers for Development Agenda. It's a pleasure to be here with you today with many key players in both policy in the private sector and the room. And we have a very exciting program before us. So I'd like to thank CSIS for welcoming us in their brand new facilities. And I would say, Dan, you're the man. We just met in June. Here we are with convening a lot of people for a great conference. So this is very exciting. And I'd like to thank also CSIS for partnering with Canada to make this conference a success. And before we proceed with the first panel, I'd like to say a few words about Canada's contribution to development in the last couple of years. So today, more than 1.1 billion people around the world still live in extreme poverty, trying to survive on less than $1.25 a day. How to keep these billion people from losing their daily struggle is a complex challenge that pushes us to really find our approach to international assistance. So since 2006, Canada has long been at the forefront of the international development. And for me, this means going beyond the boundaries that have traditionally defined how development is done. At the core of our efforts lies a commitment to new partnerships and constant innovation. It's a commitment to smart development that evolves with the rapidly changing development landscape. It is in spirit that Canada is happy. It is in spirit that Canada is happy to organize with CSIS this event today. As many of you know, international assistance is not what it used to be. Indeed, a great deal has changed since Canada began officially, pursuing international development in the late 60s. Today, developing countries are increasingly driving global growth and using economic development, trade and investment to fuel their own progress. The importance of development assistance has decreased compared to other resources. And foreign direct investment to developing world now outpaces assistance by a five to one margin. Elimiting extreme poverty and promoting global prosperity are two sides of the same coin. Partner countries in Africa, for example, have long said that they need more than just development assistance. How many times I heard from my counterpart, we don't need aid, we need trade. So friends, what we know is they need access to the knowledge and expertise that can help them to mobilize their own resources and capabilities. And with private sector investment, they can reinvest the public revenues into the health and well-being of their own citizens. I think Canada is an especially good position to help developing countries to meet these challenges, both institutional and economic. Canada weathered the global financial crisis better than most of our trading partners because Prime Minister Harper had a plan. Today, Canada has the best employment record in developed countries. Nearly 1.1 million jobs have been created since their recession. Canada experience can definitely be an asset for several developing countries. Canada was the one of the first donors to promote the central role of sustainable economic growth in international development. And it remains a top priority. More recently, when our government merged the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade with the Canadian International Development Agency, which is now DFADD, we're working at branding, by the way then, as you know, DFADD sounds... Anyway, we can do better. It's like CSIS. Exactly. More recently, when our government... So when we merged, it was to capitalize on the full potential of the interrelation between foreign policy, development and trade. We are now beginning to reap the benefits of this merger. We believe that this coherence will lend greater way to our efforts at all levels. As Minister of La Francophonie, I can now attest to the benefits of the merger in this specific area also. With its partners, for example, Canada is currently leading an effort to ensure that La Francophonie adopts an economic strategy. The recognition of the department allows Canada to push for a strategy that will consider the different levels of development of La Francophonie countries, while we ensure that trade and development are on equal footing. We have demonstrated commitment to international development since the earliest days for governments. In the 2006 budget, our government reaffirmed Canada's commitment to double international assistance to $5 billion in 2010, 2011. But it was also clear to us that to give a new impetus to our international assistance, we had to make some changes to existing policies and practices. At the time, Canada's assistance was too scattered among too many countries and too many themes. Moreover, this situation was noted in a critical report by the OECD on Canada's aid policies. In 2007, we therefore adopted an aid effectiveness action plan. We then decided to focus our energy and efforts geographically and thematically where Canada could take a leading role. And I think that no example can illustrate the success better than our global leadership role in maternal, newborn, and child health since 2010. Before Prime Minister Harper drew the word's attention to the crucial issue of maternal, newborn, and child health, we were having trouble reducing maternal and child mortality. Thanks to the Moscow initiative and the resulting global action, maternal mortality rates are going down and millions more children are able to celebrate their fifth birthday. It is our top development priority that I am proud to say was reinforced by Prime Minister Harper in May at the saving every woman, every child, global summit in Toronto. Heads of governments, industry, and civil society organizations came together to build consensus on how to redouble international efforts to reduce the preventable deaths of mothers, newborn, and child, children under the age of five in developing countries within a generation. The summit reaffirmed that we are on the right track. That saving every woman and every child is within arm's reach. And that redoubling our efforts is a necessity if we are to meet our goals. It also reaffirmed that this issue must retain at the centre of our post-2015 global development agenda. And Toronto, the Prime Minister, announced that Canada would provide $3.5 billion over five years to support maternal, newborn, and child health. This commitment will build momentum in the global effort to save the lives of millions of babies, children, and mothers and help them to grow and thrive. We already saw results two weeks ago in New York when President Kim of the World Bank and other leaders, including Prime Minister Harper, announced the founding of the global financing facility for every woman, every child. As a founding partner, Canada will contribute $200 million toward the facility as part of our $3.5 billion commitment announced in the Toronto Summit. Housed at the World Bank, the facility will provide the critical financial infrastructure to mobilize the capital required to scale up health services for women and children. And in particular, the new facility will establish a multi-donor platform to help developing countries to build and strengthen their CRVS system, which is a crucial, crucial need. Development has now become a global endeavor in which partners from across a section of areas work together to meet the needs of the world's poor. It used to be squarely the domain of government development agencies, charities, and international organizations. Canada is furthering its development priorities by working closely with a multitude of partners. And there is no type of partner that alone can enable us to overcome all challenges. Each stakeholder has its reason for being. And as I said earlier, we know that sustainable economic growth drives poverty reduction and the private sector drives economic growth. It is thus vital to partner with the private sector to raise people from poverty and set them on the path to the prosperity. Meaningful jobs, better education, and training, and improved health and nutrition for mothers and children can all lead to an increased likelihood for overcoming poverty. And these are all increasingly attainable when the private sector is better connected to global development efforts. Since I became Minister of International Development, one of my priorities has been to make sure Canada is at forefront of the efforts to leverage local, Canadian, international, and multinational private sector actors. It is why I was proud to be named Chair of the Redesigning Development Finance Initiative known once again with another acronym, RDFI. The RDFI is a joint global project between the World Economic Forum and the Development Assistance Committee of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Its main objective is to expand the pool of foreign and domestic capital to help accelerate social and economic progress. And its main tools are one, identifying and testing innovative public-private finance models, and two, scaling up blended finance partnerships. That being said, I recognize that we have some improvements to make on this front. The Canadian private sector does not participate in development in its full potential. Many have identified the lack of a Canadian development financing mechanism to explain the situation. This is something I have taken seriously, and I'm currently consulting to see how best respond to the situation. Many other non-traditional partners can help Canada to overcome the challenge of development. There is no doubt that innovation is vital to the achievement of development results. And Canada's scientific and technological community is one of our greatest assets. Since the department has long been active in developing countries, it has a very unique perspective on the field. And I want the department to connect our S&T ecosystem with the needs of the developing world. There is also the influx of immigrants from other countries, which has created diasporas or expatriate communities whose activities have an impact on development. With transfer totaling nearly $24 billion in 2012, Canada is the third largest source of remittances to developing countries. This is more than four times of the official development assistance that is flown out of Canada. So these remittances help to reduce poverty and meet basic needs in several developing countries, but they are certainly an opportunity, once again, to optimize and leverage on this regard. So there must be greater recognition of this significant contribution by our fellow citizens, and we cannot do without this valuable cooperation. Diversifying our partnership is crucial to the future successes of our aid program, and there is no lack of opportunity to do so. But it is just as important to maintaining the quality and strength of our long-standing partnership with civil society. And for this reason, as Minister, have made great effort to establish ties with civil society, I had often heard people talk about how our partner organizations plentifully represent Canada and the world. And since becoming Minister of International Development, I have the chance to see this with my own eyes. Through their activities to assist poor and vulnerable communities, partner organizations are embodying Canadian values worldwide. I know that by working with our traditional partners in civil society, we can have a great impact also on development. So in conclusion, as a nation, as a people, Canadians are motivated by the need to help those less fortunate than ourselves. However, we must never lose sight of the fact that citizens expect Canadian aid to deliver tangible results. We are better equipped today than ever before to reduce poverty and to invest or develop an assistance funding where it will have the greatest impact. Canada will lead by focusing on the impact of its activities and by developing innovative solutions that can change lives. So my hope is that today's conference will contribute to the development of such innovations in Canada and around the world. So thank you again, Dan, and the team, for having this terrific conference. Great. Thank you very much, Minister. Thank you. I think we're going to jump right into the conversation about development challenges and opportunities in the Francophonie. I'm going to introduce my two friends, and then we're going to get right into it. So you, of course, have met Minister Paradis. He's the Minister for Development for the Canadian Government. And then my very good friend, John Philippe Prosper, who's the Vice President for Client Services at IFC. JP happens to be Haitian, but is a global citizen. And JP has had a very distinguished career at the International Finance Corporation, which is the private sector arm of the World Bank Group. And prior to that, was at the Inter-American Development Bank at the private sector arm. And prior to that, worked in a private sector finance institution in Haiti. So brings a global perspective, understands Haiti, of course, but also understands the challenges and opportunities in West Africa, including Francophone West Africa. So my French isn't so great, but I'm going to ask the questions in English. But I know that we were going to conduct this conversation in French. And so you should use your translation devices, and then afterwards return them as well. It looks like our friend Minister Bah has something has come up, and we won't be able to join us at the last minute. And I apologize for that. But we're going to go ahead, because the show must go on. So when I think about Haiti or I think about many parts of West Africa, oftentimes in the United States, I think in Canada, there is a perception that there are only challenges to think about. I disagree with that. I think there are many of incredible opportunities. I'd be curious from both of your perspectives, when you think about the opportunities in countries like Haiti or the opportunities in Senegal, I'd be curious about how you both see that. And let me start first with my friend J.P. when you think about opportunities in Senegal and Francophone West Africa. And Haiti, from your perspective at IFC, what do you see? I guess I have to rise to the challenge to do it in French. No papa's question is easier as he appears to get those conversations in English. So I have to recalibrate. First of all, I'm going to take the friend speaking Africa and those countries. We're going to speak Haiti in terms of opportunities. I think that you have to see what has happened in the past. If I take the example of Haiti and what we've seen in the last few years, there's been a certain number of reforms that have helped the companies in our countries. And it's thanks to these reforms that the climate for investment is better than it was before. And there's still a lot to be done, but there's been a lot of progress. And I will take the example of the investments IFC. And I'm talking about some sub-Saharan Africa. Our investments went well. We began the great wave of reforms. And I see in this room that we see a former CEO. He's a great visionary. And I recognize his technology presence. He's the one that started. And there was a great decentralization effort. And we had, I remember when I went to Africa, there was about $15 billion in the last few years. Now there's $1 billion of exchange that gives you an idea of the exponential growth in this. Because essentially, the opportunities, there's more opportunity because there's a certain number we've contributed. We've been able to help. If we couldn't have done it if there were no private investors. Because the financing is mainly the private sector. We only supported these investors. And we have a lot to think, as you were saying. And there's been a certain number of reforms in terms of infrastructures, which is very important for Africa. You can't have development in Africa or anywhere else. And unless you have appropriate infrastructure, and I take the sector of energy and electricity. And until three years ago, even an excellent day, and about $200,000 million, now we are doing more than $1 billion. And in the energy sector, we are also doing a lot in the sector of agriculture and agribusiness. And the past fiscal year, we've met many millions of dollars. And what are we saying here? Yes, there are opportunities. And there's a lot of opportunities in the sector of natural resources and raw materials. But there's also agribusiness where there's a lot of possibilities. And we can talk about the financial sector. There's an exponential growth in this sector. Many financial groups have merged. I would say there's lots of challenges. There remains a lot to be done. And we are working with the governments, both in terms of assistance, technical assistance, or serpent, or services to the government. And by working with the private sector, that's essentially what I would say for African general. And West Africa in particular, that has been also the case. I will take the fragile companies, like countries like Ivory Coast, the renewal today, because the war between and we've been able to invest more than a billion dollars in the energy sector. And we talked about Haiti. Haiti also, Haiti, as you know well, has had a lot of problems, not only political problems, but the famous earthquake and the problem of reconstruction. I'm pleased to say we have done our part and we've contributed to the reconstruction of Haiti. And we have a lot of programs in Haiti for technical assistance. But also in terms of investment programs, we are going to invest over the 12 next months about $100 million in Haiti's and very important projects for investment. But we were investing in agribusiness and also in the financial sector. That's what I have to say essentially. Minister, thank you very much. The francophonie, I think it is important to put some figures and to put in francophonie. It's about 77 countries, 225 million people that are spread over five continents. And francophonie is 15% of the gross world product. And francophonie offers an immense potential for growth because 60% of the francophones are below the age of 30 or less. And I would like to, when you say there are opportunities, there's a lot of future in the French-speaking countries in terms of economic development. The main sectors, we've talked a lot about infrastructure, energy, mining, and health and education. What we are doing in Canada, being a full-scale member of francophonie, we are the second biggest donor in francophonie. And since 2010, and clearly, we are remaining in the francophonie. There's this development that is relevant. It's a French-speaking community that's transparent and that is going to help the advancement of the rule of law and democracy. And the whites of women and children and other people, I'm talking about the Senate. In general, we have an organization that is in full form and works about language, culture, and diversity, and good basic rights, and transparency, and good governance. And this, in 2010, at the consortium declaration, we talked about an economic strategy. We worked on this as member countries, and it will be adopted in the future. And on the 9th of November that is coming up, we want an economic strategy that's not static. It's to create dynamism, to create economic interaction between among the members of the francophone community and to do things in the future. When we think of Canada with our market action plant for the development of markets, and we are trying, as we can, as Mr. Prosper has said, we have to support, but we have to also be sure that we have a legal framework and a business framework that is adequate to stimulate investment. This means to have agreements for the protection of investments. We signed with Ivory Coast, with Senegal, with countries like Benin. And we, at Catechry, we started to an agreement to create a legal framework to assure the security of the different sectors. We have to come to agreement when we talk about the dynamics of the summit and to look for players for development. And a lot of people in West Africa are concentrating on the advance of women and also the development of agriculture. We also know that women can play an important role in their daily function to earn their living. It's the whole family that benefits from this. They can go to the school. They can get educated. And this is something that helps a good number of projects that are advancing in this sector. And we can hope that we have economic development that is broader with investments that come from countries like Canada and the United States. We talked about Haiti and Maespa side. It's sure that there are a lot of challenges. There are political challenges. And if we look in the future, what can we do to be optimal in the reconstruction of Haiti and in Canada? What we're trying to look for is to take advantages that Haiti has had with this tragic earthquake that occurred in 2010 and what we can do for the infrastructure. And we are looking for an innovative process to do more to start from the fundamentals to help Haiti to have more and more economic development prices. We're looking, of course, looking for a narrow collaboration so that the government Haiti can do what it can. And so we can have a legal framework for have security for investments so that within sustainable investments that will help the growth of the economy and the education and to lift Haitians out of poverty. Thank you very much. When I think about IFC, I agree with you that 15 years ago there was only a small amount of investment. And both IFC and the World Bank in partnership with governments like Canada, like the United States, other donors supported a major set of reforms, the doing business indicators and improving investment climate. My friend Peter Boyke is here. He's in the audience of former CEO of IFC, was a great innovator in that respect. And so I appreciate you recognizing him as well. Could you talk a little bit? And when I look at the list of the opportunities, agribusiness, infrastructure, energy, and mining, education, as well as also thinking about how to include women in the private sector, I think of IFC as being active in all of those areas. The other thing when I think about IFC is that it is in some ways similar to the Francophony, a transmission belt of learning across countries. Could you just talk a little bit more about how, whether it's in, for example, it could be between Haiti or in West Africa or other parts of the Francophone world. How does IFC, whether it's the Francophone world or not, how does IFC take lessons from one part of the world and bring it to another? That would be one question for you in terms of how IFC does its business. And then I think the other question for you, JP, would be is when I think about parts of Africa, including Francophone, West Africa, there's a good news story there. And what is it gonna take from, in terms of the sorts of reforms that are gonna be necessary to turn Haiti into the same sort of good news story? If you could just think a little bit about what's it gonna take on the economic side or the economic reform side to make Haiti a good news story? So those are my two questions for you. One is about IFC and it's serving as a transmission belt and talking a little bit about how you transfer learning. And the second is how do we turn Haiti into a good news economic story? Because if you'd look back 20 years in many parts of Africa, it was all a bad news story and that's changing with challenges. And I think I wanna believe, and I do believe that it could happen as well as Haiti. And for you, minister, I think one of the questions is how should we think about the Francophonie as a transmission belt? And how should the United States and Canada better leverage its relationship with the broader Francophonie as part of its larger development and diplomacy strategy? I'm gonna ask my friend JP to go first. Merci. Thank you. At the level of IFC, how do we share the different experiences that we have from one country to another? Essentially, we try to establish information systems to do some knowledge management so that we can ensure that training what we did in one country or another, we can always, if we want to do a similar project in another part of the world, we can benefit from the internal experience. That's done. And this is done today, I wouldn't say in an informal manner, but not in sufficiently systematic manner. That's one of the reasons for which we are currently reviewing how we restructure the current structure. Now, since October one, we no longer have a regional vice president. So before October until September 30th, I was a vice president covering Latin America and Africa. Which allowed, from that point of view, to cross, have cross-visualization between Latin America and Africa. I was there, I saw both. But now we only have one sole global vice president. Global plan services. And we have two co-chairs, me and a colleague. The objective now is to manage the institution in a global manner. And avoiding cleavage from one region to another. We want more fluidity, more transfer of experience from one region to another. We have just begun. We're gonna see how it will happen. We hope it will work, but that's the objective. Or at least one of the objectives. So roughly talking about the subject, how we're going, trying to improve it. Now, the second point. What should we do to change? I must say that it's a little difficult given that I'm Haitian myself. So I'm a little ill at ease. I'm going to make a little bit of, not a joke, but a comment. It may not be politically correct. I remember about 15 years ago, maybe more. Say 20. And I had a Haitian who was university professor in Washington and who worked at the Inter-American Bank. He was a well-known, I went to see him. What do you see as a solution? How do we change things? And he said, I'm going to speak, translate because we spoke in Creole. That was not in the economics textbook. It's a little in bad taste, but it's just to say that really it's a relatively complex problem. And I think it involves more, in my opinion, of governance in the large sense of the term, not only about how to manage one thing or another, but to implement structures and institutions that permit the country to function. I'll take an example. If you take the example of the Canada of Canada, you could put a robot there as a president and the institutions would work. If you take other countries, it's a little bit the same, but in some countries like Haiti, we don't have this type of institution. And I think in my opinion, we must first create these institutions, implement systems, as I said, of governance, and especially, and create, and that's going to be in my humble opinion the result of education. Of the majority of the people which Haiti has not done, which the Haitian elite has not done, even people who had the opportunity, like me, who had an opportunity to study and do have a nice academic career, I think it's a failure of the Haitian elite. We must ensure that the majority of the population, that if they're educated, they'll be able to ask for more. They can be more demanding from their government. So for me, it's what's to be debated, it's not just an economic problem. So here's what I would say. Thank you. I like the expression when we talk about Francophonie, how it would be seen as a transmission belt, I mean as a learning belt. We talk to each other, Francophonie is trying to define itself among its members as a transmission belt for learning. As I said before, we can build on this rich heritage that was given to us by the secretary of youth, be a strong Francophonie, then that also has a lot of assets. We can't neglect them, we have preserved them in terms of good governance, transparency, democracy. We must build on what's been done up to date. For example, when a country, a Francophone country, we cannot be excluded if there is a problem to be excluded and re-included. It's a very important tool. It's seen more and more in the world. There's more and more pressure on the country in question. We have to go to a second phase, which is to have an economic strategy that develops the economic block. With the Francophonie, when you talk about 77 states that are members, that's about 900 million people. You need, there are people that are adhering, joining this movement and observers that want to join in, because they see growth in this area. I really believe in it. It can be a transmission belt for learning. I have a good hope that following we can go forward with an economic strategy that will be dynamic. And the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Senegal told me that following the Decals Summit in November, the following Monday, there will be an economic forum that will be held. There have also been meetings that have been held, be it in Mexico in the spring, or the world economic. The Francophone actors are getting together more and more to agree on the future, so that we may continue to this second phase, which is the economic phase. That becomes interesting, because for countries like Canada, the US, I think that once again, it establishes a level of security for investors, even on a legal point, that makes for a serious approach. The members of the Francophonie, 24 of the member states that have the lowest indicators in terms of development, there's an enormous potential, but knowing that they are serious, that we cannot just look at simply the forms of aid, but also the forms of investment for economic growth, and there is an appetite for this, and Canada and the US and other countries can really gain from a partnership, because we can share our expertise, so technical expertise, whether it be in the realm of health or infrastructure education, there are other countries on the other side that say, yes, we have to do business together, because we want to move in the economic world progress. One last question for you. You have a meeting with the CEO of EIB in a few minutes, so I really appreciate you taking time out of your schedule. I know the minister also appreciates it very much. Could you just give us a couple parting thoughts about, if you're, when you look as someone who's a Haitian and an expat Haitian, as also someone who's worked all over the world, including in West Africa, if you think about the challenges and opportunities that you see in West Africa and Haiti, where should the United States and Canada, how could they best work with IFC? What would you love to see? How could the United States and Canada work more closely with IFC on opportunities in Haiti and in West Africa? There may be certain things you're thinking about, either there's a new investment climate facility, or you may be thinking about new opportunities in infrastructure. There may be new opportunities in education or health or gender. I know there are any number of different ideas are constantly bubbling up at IFC. I'd be curious if there was one or two opportunities that come to mind that are currently in your inbox right now in either Haiti or in West Africa. You think, boy, it would be so important for Canada, the United States, to get involved here, that we ought to be seizing together, IFC and partners like the United States and Canada. Merci. There's a big about money. I think actually money will flow if you have the right conditions. And private investors, wherever they can make money, they will go after it and try to make money. I think one of the strongest roles they can play is by virtue of their influence with these governments to make sure that the proper help push the proper reforms and also on governance. And I'm insisting on this, not that the, frankly, the African countries already have worse governance than anywhere else or done some countries of Eastern Europe or others. I mean, a number of countries have governance issues, period. However, if you don't fix that, you are not going to have sustainable investment. So I think this is going to be very important. That's one. And I don't want to take example in the mining sectors. I mean, I'm sure the Canadians know about tons of example, and we know somewhere we have had issues. So I won't get into specific countries. Second, I mentioned earlier, when I was talking about electricity, I was talking about infrastructure in general. There is no way you are going to develop a country when people have to pay 30 cents, 40 cents, or 50 cents, sometimes a kilowatt. I mean, which company can be competitive in doing that? It's madness. That's not going to happen. You are not going, so if we talk about, you have to develop more, let's say, agribusiness, not just send the raw materials or the products that you have from Africa, just export them, not to do that, but get more value added locally and build more, and the value chain and do more, create more jobs, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But the only way you are going to do that is that if you can be competitive. Now, as I said, with those, if you are paying those amount of money for a per kilo or whatever, it's not going to happen. If to ship a good from, let's say, from one country to another, that may be close to each other, but because of the way the transport system is, it costs much more money than if you have to make it coming all the way from the US or from China or wherever, it is not going to be competitive. So clearly I think infrastructure is going to be another area where we can work together and more importantly, we can bring the private sector into that in public-private partnerships if you have the proper reforms and the proper business environment created. And as I said, we have plenty of example, I was mentioning earlier how much money that we have been able to put. I think I was saying like five years ago, we are putting $200 million at best. And now, I mean, the last two years, we have done an average of about a billion dollars in infrastructure, let's say in Africa. And it is just our contribution and we have some mobilization, but very little there. So clearly, those two area and the third area, I think which is absolutely fundamental, I mean, agribusiness, a lot of these were included, but access to finance, because in those countries it is proven, I'm not inventing studies done by economists, by others, about 90% of the jobs are created by small and medium companies. Now, if small and medium companies cannot have proper access to finance, how are they going to be able to invest? And if they don't have the proper environment framework, we talk about, let's say, ease of doing business. We talk about, this is not even when we look at the doing business for country to improve. This is not for the big companies. If I'm a large company and to get my goods from customs, let's say it could take three days or four days or whatever, because there's so many procedures and blah, blah, blah, and you have to pay people a lot of money to do that. Well, I can hire somebody and pay maybe 50,000 dollars or 60 or 80,000 a year to take care of these things. But if you're a small and medium enterprise and they say your turnover is 100, 200,000 dollars, you cannot afford to do that. And as I said, if 90% of the jobs are created by them, if you don't fix that environment, forget about it. So I think those are the three areas that I would mention, of course, you can orders, but that's your own private, is that? JP, thank you. I'm gonna hope the minister will stay because I wanna ask him about moral suasion and perhaps using the Francophonie and Canada's moral suasion with countries in the Francophonie as well as responding a little bit to these opportunities in mining and infrastructure and access to finance. Thanks again, JP, for being with us. Okay. Thank you. Thanks. I think that, because I wanna make sure that the French audience hears this. When we think about the issues of governance and the issues of moral suasion, I think when I think about Canada, I think a lot about the Canadian brand and I think a lot about leveraging that Canadian brand in the Francophonie. Talk a little, you mentioned a little bit about this issue of using political pressure and not excluding folks, but also using it as a way to have, I think, frank conversations if we can put it that way. Talk a little bit about how Canada thinks about issues of governance and how it uses its moral suasion on challenges in Africa and Haiti and elsewhere. Oui, merci beaucoup. Thank you very much. Excellent question. I think it's basic, it's fundamental. In fact, when partner countries say we're going to have trade exchanges, not only for development and aid, that means that it can be attractive. So it's important to implement a legal framework to find agreements and the protection of investments and also to improve governance overall, public management, government management. We say in Canada to our investors to say, well, you should interest yourselves in developing countries, but of course they're used to deal in attractive environments, in good environments. And so we have to emphasize this message. The Francophonie is a very relevant organization as long as some people move away from these values and that can be very serious on a diplomatic level. This is a tool that we have to use, but from the side of Canada, we're doing this constantly. When we talk of branding of Canada, you could say that we talk about the mining sector. It's extremely important because in Canada, we're the best ambassadors of the mining sector. We have a lot to share. We have to take away this ghost of mistrust that people are going to come in and take all the resources. On the contrary, the partnership is a win-win. I've specifically talked about, we've committed to an important dialogue with civil society because if we're gonna have projects that are going to be good for extractive companies, we must be committed. We have to say my specialty is the development of exploiting a mine, but if we're gonna be better in the community, the government can bring people together and say, are you thinking of doing a deal with such a person, such a company, and I have all this equipment in the field in terms of development. I can name one project, Tech Resources, who are now in certain countries and they're going to do zinc distribution. We realized there was a problem with the growth of small children. OTECH is a projector of producer zinc. There are connections there that can be made. The community can reach a win-win situation. Some will go in projects for training the workforce for health installations. I wanna say that I'm proud to say that there is more and more Canadian branding, especially for action plans for extractives over the next quarter. We're not doing it on the short term, we're doing it on the long term. We wanna have a durable engagement within the community because by working together, we're gonna have economic development and social development in the community and that means that everybody wins. So that's why I really want to eliminate the view of the private sector as the bad guy. There is really a partnership that can be brought about. The government has a role to play. A very strong dialogue has taken place with civil society over the last few months. We talked with civil society and they gave reports. What are we expecting as the government? What is our role? What do we wanna do? With the development, we're here, but we can go further. We have to bring people together. The private sector, foundations, civil society. What are we expecting from each other? We need a policy, a draft policy paper that's been put online in order to survey people and to ask, what do you think of this? So we had an interactive dialogue and we have come up with a more, we wanna have a more systematic solution for the future and that includes the different actors. Everybody has a role to play. It's not one or the other. It's everyone together. It could not be done alone. And we must transcend not just the Canadian approach, but when we talk with our partner countries, everybody participates and we're all together. Mr. and now you're aid minister. So when I think about Haiti, could you talk about Canada's economic and development engagement in Haiti a little bit? Because I think it's important for this audience and for the audience watching this to understand that the engagement of Canada in Haiti is not just an assistance when you're one of the largest bilateral donors, but I'd be curious about the role of the private sector in Haiti and how those two blend now that you're in this new role. I suspect you've got a perspective on that. Oui, effectivement. Yes, in fact, there are a lot of challenges in Haiti and I think, like Mr. Prosper said, in fact, reflects. I share his view on economic projects. The economy, we must address the basic needs, the political aspect, but we have to also strengthen the capacities of the state, whether it be governance or implementing measures for the business world and also the state of law and establish a legal system. And we need predictability if there are lawsuits on the horizon. There's work to be done in this area. That's a dialogue that we're continuing to have with our friends in Haiti. How do we help Canada to help to strengthen the capacities? The Prime Minister, LeMotte, is very active in supporting investment and that's to his credit, but there's a side that says, if people, if you come here, how can I better manage the risk if I come here? In the state, we have to work to ensure that so if we can strengthen certain capacities, we can share some expertise and it's a continuous dialogue that is evolving. When we talk of economic projects, some projects are working well. I went to Haiti myself and I saw what I saw in the region. And in terms of microfinance, there's some very interesting projects of microfinance that are cooperative for regional boxes. There's 400,000 savers in a region, so that's families. Families can now send children to school. School charges are paid once a year, so for an ordinary worker, that's a big sum. That's almost prohibitive, that's very hard to get. So with microfinance centers, the annual costs are amortized over a monthly plan. So the families have access to education for their children. It seems simple, but problems like this, that's how you strengthen a generation so that people have access to basic needs such as education and that's how we can hope to have a type of development that is better for the future. There are other projects at the agricultural level that I saw that were very interesting. A lot of partnerships being formed whether in with the Canadian Federation of Municipalities but also projects with agricultural financing of Quebec. That's to say that there's potential there. And the key, and I understand it for having been there but having also consulted the diaspora, which is very important. What we're being asked to have as a role, what we can do is bring people together to have a dialogue in terms of partnership. If people get together and imagine and create partnerships, you can establish a dialogue that will not be stagnant. And from a more macro level as a government, we must continue to talk among ourselves to establish priorities, not to have 25 priorities, but to find hubs, central hubs, to develop fundamentals so that the government is working on these fundamentals and so that we create an environment that is attractive to investment. This will allow us to better group our affairs together in the future, but we have to really strengthen partnerships. Thank you very much. I thought this was absolutely fascinating. We don't often have conversations that looks at these parallel structures with the Francophonie or the Committee of Portuguese-speaking countries. And I think that there is a transmission belt, there is a learning belt. I think there are significant opportunities in West Africa and I think as well as in Haiti. And I think to the extent that governments can help in sharing risk and in terms of helping to support improved governance like you've discussed and improving the rule of law, that we're gonna be able, if we've nine out of the 10 jobs are in the private sector, we need to find ways to improve the private sector and there's certainly role for DFATD, there's certainly role for other donors in that and so really appreciate you sharing your perspective on that and also appreciate JP joining us from IFC at a time when it's very busy given it's the annual meetings this week. So please join me in thanking the minister and JP for this very interesting conversation. Appreciate it. Thank you very much. Okay, we're gonna have a set change. We're gonna have my friends come up about the trade and development nexus. You've got two or three minutes and we're gonna start in three minutes. So if you guys wanna get coffee of three minutes too, we're gonna start in three minutes. Thanks everybody.