 Hello, everyone. Welcome to the webinar doing business in Columbia, Canada, Columbia Free Trade Agreement and opportunities for BC companies. Those who have joined our previous webinars on South America might recognize me for those new to the session. My name is Ganna Drost. I'm Manager of Trade Policy and Negotiations Branch, BC Ministry of Jobs, Economic Recovery and Innovation. And before I begin, I'd like to acknowledge that I'm speaking today from the territories of the Gwangan speaking peoples, the Isphymote and some of these First Nations, the traditional landkeepers of the land where I work and play. And I'm joined today by our panelists connecting from Bogota, Claudia Ramirez, Senior Trade Commissioner with Embassy of Canada in Columbia, Juliana Perez, Regional Coordinator, Expert Development Canada, and we also have Juliana's colleague online, Raul Duk, Senior Account Manager for EDC, and he's connecting from BC. So today's webinar doing business in Columbia concludes a series of webinars on Canada's free trade agreements in South America and market opportunities in South American markets. We've previously delivered two webinars on Chile and on Peru, and we're happy to share the links to the webinar recordings with those of you who are not able to attend. So now I'd like to introduce our agenda for today's webinar on Columbia. The webinar will last approximately one hour and 15 or 20 minutes and there will be three presentations in total. So we will start with an introduction to Canada's bilateral free trade agreement with Columbia and we'll proceed with a presentation on expert opportunities and key sectors in the Colombian markets. So the presentation on expert opportunities will be delivered by Claudia Ramirez and both presentations on Canada, Columbia free trade agreement and expert opportunities will last approximately 15 to 20 minutes each. And then we will move to the presentation on support to BC and Canadian exporters in Columbia, available through Canada's expert credit agency. So that presentation will be delivered by Juliana Perez and we will conclude today's webinar with a Q&A session. And we've reserved approximately 20 to 25 minutes for that. And for Q&A, please use the Q&A function at the bottom of your screen to raise questions and you can do that at any time during the webinar. And please try to be as specific as you can and indicate if possible who you are directing your question to. And finally, if the questions are some technical questions that might need some follow up, you might take them offline too. And also wanted to mention that the session is being recorded and we'll be sharing the recording and the presentations after the webinar in the post event email. And if you experience any technical issues, any problems with audio or anything like that, please send me a message in the chat using the chat function. So now let's move to the presentation on Canada, Columbia free trade agreement. And for those who were not able to join our previous webinars just a few words about my branch. So the branch trade policy negotiations branch represents BC interests in both international and domestic free trade agreements. And in trade agreements in trade negotiations, as well as in trade disputes that affect BC. And we also run consultations with BC businesses and stakeholders to better understand your interests and to communicate them to the federal government who leads the international trade negotiations. And of course our branch also does FTA outreach sessions like this webinar to ensure that the information on free trade agreements is widely known and understood. So just a quick overview of my presentation. I'll briefly present the role of our ministry. Then I'll talk about Canada's trade agreements and Canada Columbia agreement. And I will mention some key opportunities for boots and services in that market. And we'll also dive into some practical steps on how to use free trade agreements. The ministry of jobs economic recovery and innovation aims to make life more affordable for British Columbians by building a strong and sustainable economy and steering an economic recovery where no one is is left behind. And it is ministry's mandate to assist businesses with the leveraging trade opportunities in existing and in new markets and to encourage trade diversification to fight protectionism abroad and to enhance market access for BC experts. We support communities in all regions to attract investment to create resiliency and we assist underrepresented expert groups including women, indigenous youth owned businesses SMEs located generally throughout BC. We assist you to be aware and leverage opportunities through a variety of programs like expert navigator that provides free support and ongoing guidance to help your business grow outside BC. And we also have BC trade and investment offices, also known as BC in market representatives that are based in a number of markets globally. In terms of the economic recovery and growth of course there are many ways to foster that and one way is to encourage businesses like you to leverage the opportunities that are found in free trade agreements, and to help you diversify your expert markets. So today I will introduce some general opportunities under Canada Columbia free trade agreement and hopefully they will allow you to to start a discussion to start thinking in that direction on how that might be one piece of the puzzle for for your products and services to strive internationally and in the market specifically. So I know some of you might already have seen this map before in our previous webinars but I just wanted to add some broader context before I dive into Canada Columbia FTA. So Canada has a first mover advantage and to this day has secured 14 free trade agreements that cover 49 countries alone with two domestic trade agreements. So those agreements give businesses like you access to nearly 90% of expert markets or about 1.5 billion potential consumers worldwide. And this map shows you where in the world Canada currently has free trade agreements and the countries that have implemented free trade agreements with Canada are marked in light blue. And some of the of the well known trade agreements are PUSMA Canada agreement with the US and Mexico, the CPTPP comprehensive and progressive agreement for trans specific partnership. And in green are the markets where Canada are is in negotiation and exploratory talks in dark blue on this map you can see the countries where Canada has concluded but not yet ratified free trade agreements. It is also useful to note that some free trade agreements overlap. For example, Mexico is in FTA with Canada through PUSMA and also through the CPTPP. And the good news for you is that you can choose under which FTA you want to claim the preferential terms of trade. And this is not the case of Columbia yet. Canada and Columbia have a bilateral free trade agreement that is in force, but a few years ago discussions have started between Canada and Pacific Alliance to which Columbia is is party to. So potentially at some point in the future, you'll need to decide between two FTAs between Columbia and and Canada bilateral FTA and Canada Pacific Alliance FTA when it gets concluded under which FTA you want to claim the preferential terms of trade. So now let's take a look at the Canada Columbia free trade agreement in more details and just start with some quick facts. So Canada Columbia FTA entered into force in August 2011 and it became Canada's six FTA in South America's. So the FTA between Canada and Columbia is a comprehensive one. And in addition to covering reduction and elimination of tariffs, it covers trade in services, government procurement, investment, temporary entry for business persons, digital trade, financial services, and so on. BC ranks number six. Simon Canadian province is exporting to Columbia and number five in terms of imports from the market. So there is a significant trade deficit in imports from Columbia to to BC, and it, it exceeds the imports from Columbia exceed the experts almost by five times. So nevertheless, it's an opportunity worse considering and hopefully today's webinar will contribute to helping reverse the trend and identify the the opportunities that might be suitable for you. So the key BC experts to Columbia include serials ventilating hoots, instruments for measuring electrical phenomena, wheat, heat pumps and refrigeration equipment, and some pork meat. So key imports from Columbia are non-roasted coffee. It represents more than half of Columbia's experts to BC. Cut flowers, tropical fruit, good preparations and cane sugar. So now let's take a look at some opportunities for Canadian and BC goods that are offered by Canada Columbia FTA. And as you might recall from our previous sessions, one of the most tangible and visible aspects of pre-trade agreements are tariff reductions and tariff eliminations. So before moving to tariff reductions, it is useful to know that Columbia's most favored nations tariff tariff that applies to countries that Columbia has no pre-trade agreement with is around 5.8%. And more specifically, it is 14.3% for agricultural goods and 4.7% for non-agriculture goods. But the good news for you is that Canada Columbia FTA provides considerable advantages to your products, to products made in Canada, as it has eliminated or faced out a number of Colombian tariffs. And as such, 98% of Canadian experts to Columbia became duty-free when the FTA entered into force. So immediately upon the implementation of Canada Columbia FTA, Columbia eliminated tariffs on most industrial products, including paper, machinery, equipment, certain chemicals, as well as textiles and clothes. And then eliminated tariffs on the majority of agricultural experts from Canada, including wheat, barley, peas, lentils, and products such as beef and beans also benefit from immediate duty-free access within specified limits. So within volumes that are known as quotas. There are a number of other key experts such as pork, canola oil, and other oil seeds, animal fats, frozen french fries. This key will also see their tariffs gradually eliminated over time. So you can see only some examples of tariff reductions and tariff eliminations, and also the most favored nation tariff that is currently enforced by Columbia for countries that have no FTAs with Columbia. So these are mostly the examples from agri-food sector, but I'll be happy to help you check any tariffs for your particular product that is of interest. Another important point here is that if you wish to take advantage of the preferential tariff treatment under Canada-Columbia agreement or any other free trade agreement, you will need to claim it. So Colombian customs authorities will not assume that your product qualifies for 0% tariff just because it was shipped by a Canadian company from Canada. And I'll come back to that in a few slides. In today's new age, FTAs' benefits for trade go beyond the effect of lower or eliminated tariffs, and FTAs also provide greater certainty and reduce perceived business risk while making doing business internationally more transparent and predictable. So when entered into force back in 2011, Canada-Columbia FTA was instrumental and continues to provide Canadian exporters with a level playing field with other competitors in the Colombian market. So Colombia already had an FTA with Chile and Mexico prior to 2011, but later on it also signed agreements with the US, with the European Union, with Singapore, South Korea, Pacific Alliance and a number of other countries. So back then, back in 2011, Canada had a very distinctive advantage with the Canada-Columbia FTA. So Canada-Columbia FTA also provides access to government procurement for VC companies in Colombia. So the FTA guarantees VC suppliers the right to bid on a broad range of goods, services and construction contracts carried out by Colombia's federal government entities. It also ensures that practices remain transparent and fair for suppliers. And under the bilateral trade agreement, Canada and Colombia agreed to a negative list approach, which means that the agreement covers procurement of all goods and services unless specified otherwise. And in the table on this slide, you can see the approximate value of thresholds under Canada-Columbia Free Trade Agreement. This threshold gives you an idea about the value of procurement contract has to equal or to exceed so as to be covered by the trade agreement. And the caveat here is that the thresholds that you can see on this slide, they are rounded and they are also in the US dollars for your convenience, but the contracts that you will see on the Colombian procurement platform will be in the Colombian currency. And I'm sure that Claudio and his team will be able to assist you with that. So now let's take a look at a few steps on how FTAs work and how to claim the preferential treatment. We often hear from businesses whether FTA benefits are automatic if a company exports goods to a country where Canada has an FTA agreement with. So a short answer to this question is no, the preferential tariff, the benefits they need to be claimed. And I'll just provide a glimpse into a few steps for you to keep in mind when you do business in countries covered by Canada's FTAs and want to claim this preferential treatment, the reduced or illuminated tariffs for example. So first you'd want to check tariff preference in a select market and you can do it through Canada's tariff finder website using a harmonized systems code or a keyword for your product. So this user friendly tool helps you to see how your goods will be treated and Canada's FTAs markets terrifies. And next step is the rules of origin compliance. So the rules of origin are the rules around the amount of domestic content in a good. And rules of origin can be complicated and they are product specific and rules of origin also are specific to trade agreements. So if you are in doubt, we can help and take a look at your product and see in more details how they apply in your case. So once you're done with the first two steps, you need to fill in a certificate of origin and the information needed for these certificates can vary by by agreement. And under Columbia under Canada Columbia FTA, for example, there is a set format for for this certificate of origin. Well, some other agreements like the CPTPP or kusma have no specific format and only a set of mandatory elements. And finally, if you want to be sure how another country's customs administration will treat your products upon arrival, you can request an advanced ruling on tariff or origin information. And advanced rulings, they are one of the most effective trade facilitation tools in Canada's FTAs and they help expedite customs clearance and provide more certainty about how a customs administration will treat your product at the border before you even ship it. So I'll wrap my presentation here and I hope it was not too long or too technical and I'll close by saying that we continue to support people and businesses in the recovery from the pandemic by assisting you with leveraging opportunities in Canada's free trade agreements. And if this is something that you consider, be it in South America, Asia, Europe or other markets, please get in touch with us and I'll make sure that you get the information and the assistance that you need. So now without further ado, I'd like to hand it over to to Claudia Ramirez for his portion on presentation on Columbia market and expert opportunities available to BC and Canadian companies. So over to you, Claudia, you can share your screen now. Yes, thank you very much, and can you confirm that you can see my screen. Yes, perfect, I can see a screen perfect. Okay, so my name is Claudia Ramirez as gonna mentioned and it's a pleasure to be with you this morning we appreciate British Columbia's invitation, which is very much aligned with the government of Canada's very deliberate intention to diversify its trade. So I was almost late this morning, because in Canada on Sunday you move the clock upwards, and you're now only two hours difference with with Columbia, and I think that provides a good metaphor, because you're not only closer to Columbia now, time wise, the goal of this presentation is to bring you physically closer to Columbia so that we can one day have the pleasure of hosting you here. I've been the head of the program here since 2018, and my presentation like I said will be sort of more high level. And it won't get it too much into details, because I think what we really want out of this is to keep your interest contact our team, and then we can give you more personalized service depending on your years, your area of interest. So, I'm just going to flip here through the presentation. And I think it's important, especially when we talked to British Columbia, that we start with this. If I had a penny every time I see Columbia written with a U instead of an O, I would certainly not need to be working anymore, retire very happily. But it's a common mistake, especially in Canada, of course. So in terms of the Trick Commissioner Service, let me start with that. I know that some of you participated in other webinars on Chile and Peru, so I won't spend too much time but for those of you who are new to the Trick Commissioner Service, suffice to say that we've been around 425 years, we are a network of Canadian business development professionals, we help Canadian SMEs be successful when they do business abroad. We are co-located with every major Canadian embassy, high commission, consulate. So this is on this map, our locations worldwide. We have an office in Bogota, obviously, but we also have offices across Canada and I've highlighted the one we have in British Columbia. If you have not yet contacted one of our original offices, we have an office in Vancouver but also one in Victoria, I would very much invite you to encourage you to contact them at the email that you see there. Our services essentially threefold, we help you penetrate into markets with expert advice about the culture, about the business opportunities. But also we provide funding and I'll get into that a little bit later in order to de-risk your investment in doing business in emerging markets. That's funding, the one more relevant to you all is called CanExport SMEs. It's essentially on a 50-50 basis, there's a camp and it's extremely competitive over the years. And that information is on our website where you can really get a better sense of when to apply, how to apply, and I would again encourage you to use and leverage those funds because like I said previously, it's going to provide you a further financial incentive to make that first jump into the Colombian market. So Colombia at a glance and I will try not to repeat what Ghana has said previously but essentially it's the third largest economy in South America after Brazil in Argentina. It is the second most populous Spanish speaking country in Latin America after Mexico, a huge consumer market. And if I go into the location, which I think is key, there are two things to note on this particular slide. One is that Colombia is the entry point into South America. So not surprisingly, its airport in Bogota is the largest cargo airport in all of South America. Colombia is one of the few countries in fact that enjoys direct flights from Canada through Canada, but also more recently Avianca, the Colombian airline has launched direct flights between Bogota and Toronto. And like Canada, Colombia has access to both the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean. And that's key, especially with regard to BC and the access to the Pacific Ocean. So it's very much a Pacific country. And you see on the left side of this slide that it has a huge port on the Pacific Coast called Buenaventura. That's where most of BC's exports would come through into the Colombian market and often then continue on as a jump forward to other markets in South America. The other thing I want to mention about Colombia that's perhaps different from maybe Chile or Peru or other countries in South America. It's that it's a very multipolar country. So I've highlighted here on this slide the fact that yes, there's a capital Bogota, but that's only about a fourth of the population, a third of the GDP. There are many other business centers like Medellin, Cali, Cartagena, Bucaramanga, Barranquilla that you need to visit because there's a significant consumer market and some very important niches. For example, Cali is the biggest center for agriculture. Medellin for everything related to the fourth industrial revolution innovation startups is a really, really huge center. And continue on to why Colombia. Essentially, there are two key arguments. One is its economic stability. If you look at this slide, Colombia has outperformed all of the other Latin American countries over the years in terms of GDP growth. We have a middle class that's growing and also this is a country that never had a left wing president. It's always been a very market friendly, very investment friendly environment. Never had a dictatorship either, has never defaulted on its debt. And unlike some countries in the region, it hasn't been really volatile. It hasn't been prone to boost and boom and bust. Now, more recent GDP projections. As you can see on this slide, obviously 2020 was a rough year for Colombia. Its GDP contracted over 7%. It was the largest recession in the history of Colombia. It was also the largest recession in the history of Canada. But look at how Colombia has bounced back. So with this, I mean, last year over 10% GDP growth. And more importantly, the forecast and this is from the IMF and it was published in the Financial Times. Colombia is going to lead South America in terms of GDP growth 2022 2023. So it's important for SMEs in British Columbia who think about Colombia to take a long term view and really I have every reason to be bullish on this market based on these projections. Another reason to love Colombia is the fact that it's one of the few countries in South America or Latin America to be an OECD member. In fact, it's one of the most recent OECD members. You can see on this slide that in Latin America and the Caribbean, only Mexico and Chile are OECD members. And why that matter is because to become an OECD member, you really have to pass a very, very high bar in terms of reforms. And being an OECD member means that Colombia is going to continue on the path of improving its infrastructure, improving education, improving health, tackling corruption, improving governance. So again, that is the reason why we continue to think that Colombia is really a very interesting market looking forward. The history of our bilateral relationship as well. You can see on this slide a picture of the Prime Minister with the President of Colombia. Very like-minded. We had uninterrupted bilateral relations across different governments over the years. And more importantly, as Gana mentioned, we have a free trade agreement which turned 10 last year and it was a banner year for bilateral trade. And these had a record in terms of exports to one another. But again, I'll repeat myself. We really want more countries from British Columbia to start paying attention to this market and to come here. I'll skip this slide because I want to jump to the next one. This is sort of the evolution of our bilateral trade over the years. Notice after 10 years of the free trade agreement, our chief statistician and economist did a study. Our good exports to Colombia have increased by 35% in that 10-year span. Our services export to Colombia have increased by 125%. But look at even more impressive even is the Canadian investment in Colombia has increased by over 500%. And that's reflected in this slide. Canada is a leading foreign investor in Colombia. And why this matters to you if you just want to export to the country, not necessarily establish an office or a foothold, is that if Canadian pension funds and Canadian companies are here and they've invested here is because they trust this market to have confidence in the market. And that should also stoke your interest in coming to Colombia. So now in terms of opportunities. And again, I said, I promise I would be high level in the interest of time. Agriculture, I mentioned how Colombia has a large population, 52 million people. We provide two thirds of wheat to this country. We're also strong in lentils, fertilizers, value added processed foods, McCain is here. So these are household names in Canada that have a presence here. Now we're going into genetics and bovine genetics and livestock genetics, which is sort of a new frontier for us. Mining is certainly not the size of what we have in terms of investment in Peru or Chile, but certainly especially since Columbia signed a peace agreement in 2016. Many areas in the country are opening up. There's lots of resources and nickel in cold, but especially in gold and copper. We have many Canadian companies here. So if you service that industry and some BC based for example, we to go that is sitting on the largest bull deposit in Colombia. Then you'll find a lot of business opportunities here. Same thing with oil and gas. In fact, Colombia is one of the few countries in the region that is significant oil and gas producer. And therefore, if you already are in this field, and then you'll find that we can connect you to a lot of different operators. Infrastructure, the new trend is mostly related to energy, but of course, being a big country, like I mentioned, a very mountainous country, road infrastructure, airport infrastructure, government buildings. And here we have an advantage is that the Canadian Commercial Corporation works closely with us and it helps assign government to government deals. And that really gives a competitive advantage to any company. So we'd be happy to talk more about that. Clean technology. This is a country that in spite of being a big oil and gas producer is also a big producer in renewables. And therefore, if you are into wind, solar, hydro, energy storage, energy transmission, you'll find that this is a really, really big market. Defense and security. I mean, I mentioned the peace agreement, but I won't argue there are still rebel groups that are active in rural areas, and it's a country therefore that has a huge defense budget. And in terms of urban security, if you have software, lie detectors, metal detectors, all these things are they're ripe for this market. And finally, or almost finally, ICT, write information, communication, technology, software, internet of things, artificial intelligence, big data. We have a lot of that telecom operators in Columbia as well. So this is definitely a market that in a sector that is thriving for us. And education. Before last, we have so many now Colombians studying in universities, not only in UBC, but we also have with my tax in British Columbia, a huge program to bring in Colombian students to apply research in Canada. And those are staggering. So last year we approached about 8,000 Colombian students in Canadian universities. And that's the second largest number in South America for Brazil and we're about to surpass Brazil and even Mexico in terms of students to Canada. Finally, any company in the arts and creative industries, this is also an emerging market for Heritage Canada, Mexico, Columbia, and Argentina, the top three markets for this, what we call here the orange economy, so performing arts, folks publishing music. If you are in that field, even, you know, delving into video games, well, we'll welcome you to Colombia. And some events because I mentioned you we provide funding to bring you to Colombia. These are some of the events that are happening in this country across the different sectors that I mentioned. We also invite and bring missions from Colombia to Canada. So if you're planning on attending trade shows in Canada, let us know we'd like to match you and do something to be with Colombian companies. Finally, just some tips in terms of doing business here and I won't really go into them too much because they're the same that you'll find across Latin America and the Caribbean speaking the language, being patient, not thinking that you can make a quick deal. Relationships are extremely important. And therefore, if you can have a local agent or a local representative to do your bidding to talk about your technology of your products, that will certainly help. And it's a demanding market. I mean, you have to be competitive in terms of pricing and quality. Finally, this is how to reach us or reach myself more specifically as well. But the trick mission service is on even Instagram, but we are in LinkedIn, we're on Twitter. So follow us, connect with us and we'll be happy to help you. So I will end my presentation right here and I will pass the button to my back to British Columbia. Thank you so much, Claudia. Thanks for this great presentation on the Columbus market and why it should be on the top of mind of many VC companies. In terms of its importance for the South America markets and in terms of its size in the South America, that's definitely an advantage for VC companies to consider. And also, thanks for highlighting the opportunities in the sectors they are they mentioned perfectly the what VC companies can offer. And I hope that many companies that are on the line today will have some questions and I encourage I already see a few questions coming in the chat. So I encourage you to submit the questions either in the chat or in the Q&A box of your screen of your Zoom panel. And we'll be taking them at the end of the presentation. So now I'm pleased to hand it over to Juliana from EDC for her presentation on Canada's Expert Credit Agency. And Juliana will walk you through what Expert Development Canada is, what it's what support it provides to VC companies or Canadian companies like you and hopefully through some success stories in the market. And well, using the EDC product. So Juliana, I'm going to share your presentation and I'm going to hand it over to you. Great. Thank you, Ghana. So yeah, after this great overview from Ghana and Claudio, it will be a little bit easier because we're going to give you some information about us and how we can make the decision that you take to come to Columbia and make business with Columbia a reality. So before I continue, Juliana Perez, I am the MD and regional coordinator. And I am here with Raul Duque. He's the senior account manager and he's located in Vancouver. He's Colombian as well. And we're here to talk about Expert Development Canada. Next slide please. Thank you. So we are the Expert Credit Agency from Canada. So maybe for those ones who didn't join us in their previous Latin American webinars, I'm going to speak a little bit about what do we do, what are our products and what is our presence in Columbia. We're the Expert Credit Agencies since 1944 and we have been dedicating to help Canadian companies of all sizes and sectors succeed in global markets. Next slide please. So this is our purpose. Our purpose is to make Canada and the world better through trade. We help Canadian companies with our financial solutions with our knowledge and with our network to develop trade in the international marketplace. So we help them being more competitive, but also to manage the risks that they will face in their journeys. Next slide please. So on the map of our international presence, we have 20 international representations right now and we have one international corporate brand located in Singapore. From our NDN representation we cover also Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, the Caribbean and Central America. Next slide please. An important slide that I decided to include in my presentation because we believe that ESG is really powerful accelerator right now. We help Canadians to mitigate these governance environment and social risks that are facing right now. So we support these sustainable business opportunities. It doesn't matter on what stage of ESG you find yourself. So we finance these sustainable efforts so that you can have a better and future growth opportunity in trade. We also prioritize these ESG not only for our customers but also for our internal business and operations. And something important here is that we're working on building a more inclusive trade environment. So we're tailoring some of our products or our products to groups such as women in trade and also indigenous exporters. Next slide please. So now I'm going to invite my colleague Raul to help us explain a little bit and go through our solutions. Thank you Juliana and hi everyone. So again Raul Duque in the Vancouver office of EDC. So I'm going to jump right now into actually what are EDC solutions to help Canadian exporters and investors. So we can bucket those solutions in four groups. And we're going to start with financing which is a big area of what EDC does. And it has different shape and forms depending on the size of the company and depending the circumstances. So the one of the I guess the first one that we can look at financing is a guarantee program that works with the Canadian Bank. So you're the Canadian Company's bank. We partner with your bank to help you get more access to working capital. So you when you sign the contract in Colombia or then you can have access to more financing. You can do the transaction. And so that's a big program that we that we have then the financing also goes into direct financing when the company is more like mid market and bigger companies that are looking at actually investing in the market. Or buying a company in the market. Those type of things EDC does that we do direct financing for those situations and then it can move up to more like corporate lending. So that's a more structure financing. We do also have a program where you are dealing with capital equipment. Those type of more machinery. We partner with a with a company in Canada. They call they are called Elevate. We work together so you can actually be more competitive and offer financing for your Colombian clients. So you have a package of financing. We can work on that as well. We also have a program that is and Julianne is more involved in that but we actually finance Colombian the big Colombian corporations and the main reason for that will be to open their supply chains and actually get them to buy Canadian. So we will talk more about that but but that's also part of our financing program. Then I can move to the second bucket of solutions that is the insurance program is pretty much credit insurance. So what that means is accounts receivable insurance whenever you have a transaction in Colombia. And you want to be let's say you have a distributor and you want to give them terms you want to give them up to 90 180 days so so you can there's more flexibility in payment. Well, you can use our insurance against non payment of data specific accounts receivable so it covers up to 90% of the transaction. And then you cannot use it just for like a one specific deal or you can use it for all your portfolio if you have multiple clients you can use to use it for all so it's very flexible. And it's the biggest solution right now I guess in EDC for because actually mitigate the risk of doing business. It also provides some financing indirectly because your bank in Canada can margin the accounts receivable when it's insured by EDC. So so that's another advantage of using the insurance insurance on the on the on those accounts. The third big group of solutions is knowledge, and this is more of a free service and is very complimentary to what the trade commissioners service does. We actually, in a lot of instances we actually refer you to the trade commissioner when when it's more in deep information, but anytime you have questions and you will, we have a team that can package information and can help you with specific issues on a specific in Colombia for example, but mostly will be through the trade commissioners. Finally, a big program and this is who is going to talk maybe about it is the connections program, which is what I was referring to in terms of financing of big corporations in Colombia or across across the world, the world. We do as soon as we establish those connections with those companies, we actually make introductions. We, but we organize trade shows, or in the trade shows we organize events to make the introductions. So that's a big program that we do, and it's done through a to a group at EDC that is called global trade. So they are very active. And it's also a free service where we match Canadian capabilities to what Colombia or the other countries in the world are looking for So, so those are the big buckets of solutions that EDC provides and, and if there's any questions you can maybe at the end, put them in the chat, and I will pass it on to Juliana. Thank you, Rowan. That was very, very well explained. Now next slide please. So EDC opened their office in Colombia. Yes, in February 2014. So I'm going to mention some of the highlights of our operation last year. Our volume the volume that we closed it was 1 billion. It includes all our products last year. This is also more than 540 million just in financing. And we served 319 customers out of which 272 were in the micro small and medium sectors, meaning where companies with one up to 500 employees. Most of our business volume was directed to the infrastructure segment, as you can see in the graph. And also within the customers that we served more most sorry are in the manufacturing, in front and resources industries. On the right side, you can see our top two products for Colombia that they are financing on the one side and insurance on the other one. The ones that I will have explained. Most of the customers, the client that we serve in the insurance side are in the agri food sector. Next slide please. Yes, that one. Thank you. So this is some relevant transactions that we closed on the financing side last year. So as you can see, hopefully it's not too tiny. Most of these transactions are in the power and utilities sector. This is a really, really important sector right now. It's part of the promotion of the economic recovery by the government. So there are a lot of incentives in public policies, regulatory and fiscal incentives in order to grow in these opportunities in the energy and power sectors. And as you can see, these are also a transactions and financing that are helping Canadian investors abroad. This is worth mentioning what Raul was saying about our connection financing program. So this is also important because when a local company has a contract or has an agreement with a Canadian company, we can not only assist the Canadian side, but we also partner with the Colombian side. So we finance them, we do what Raul was explaining. So we do these trade connections. We are understanding first, what are the needs of the Colombian company? What are the challenges that are facing? What are the things that they haven't been able to cover in the Colombian market with the vendors? So we go back to Canada and we analyze which are the Canadian companies that are a better fit for these Colombian buyers. We introduce them to them and we hopefully get some contract signs after all these interactions. Next slide please. So this is also important to mention because we have realized that knowledge is a big important component of customers and something that we're working now. We're developing new knowledge products. This is when we work closely with the Trade Commissioner services because we want to strengthen our market support for all the exporters. So we want to help you get a better understanding, not only of the market activities, but relationship and support you to grow your business. So we highly encourage here to create an EDC account on my EDC.ca and also to follow us on social media. We have different guides all the time. We have etiquette guides for different regions for Colombia as well. We have different informational packs that you can find and we also have our Trends in Trade that eats our latest first season series of Trends in Trade. That is really good for you to begin understanding what is the market and if this is going to be something that you're considering making business with. So just to mention what Raul was saying we have this team that could also help you understanding once you begin considering this as a market to understand you what are like the trade related question and information that you need in order to move along. And next slide please. So this is our team and as Raul mentioned, all of us were here to assist you. So if you would like to expand more in any product or how can we support you to understand and get more tools in order to make business in Colombia we're here to help. So here are emails and please feel free to contact any of us. Thank you. Thank you so much Juliana thanks for your for this presentation of the EDC services and thank you to Raul as well for joining the presentation and explaining how the how the services work. So I think it was a great overview of what BC companies can expect in the market on what they can rely in terms of the services and how you can best support them once they go once they go abroad. So I'm sure that will be getting a few questions. We already start getting some questions and we are actually moving into the Q&A session now so I encourage you to send a few more questions either in Q&A section or in the chat box. And we can start answering them right now. So you can see that a few questions have already been taken by Claudio and by Raul. So there was one question about oil and gas service sector and aerospace parts production in Colombia. I think David Claudio has already answered your question but in case you want to you have more questions to follow up with please please do so either in the chat or in the Q&A section. So you can see there was already one question from to EDC from Eric regarding the closing the insurance of the solution. Okay, this has been taken on as well. So here is one question from Eric. Again, I believe to EDC so to Juliana or to Raul, whether anyone can give an idea of cost for for an insurance product and I appreciate that it might be a specific question. It might need some some begin some research but Juliana or anyone. I can take I can take that one. So the insurance, yes, as you mentioned is really depends on the specific type of product. So for example it is a type of commodity lumber for example will be cheaper than a more customized product. The market also obviously make a big difference. But in general, the pricing range is around between 50 basis points to a 1% of the amount that you want to ensure. And that will be that will cover. Let's say, if you want to cover for like a one off so it will be, let's say 90 days for that specific amount around, I will say 50 basis points to 1% of the of the ensure or the amount that you want to ensure. Does that answer the question. I hope so I hope it provides a bit of a check. Okay, Eric Eric says that yes for him but yes in case Eric and everyone else in case you want to follow up with the panelists you have the contact details and will be providing them in the follow up emails as well. The audio has already posted one, an email here to follow up in the chat as well. So if anyone wants to follow up with him and with his team you can also go and check the email in the chat. I think we see one more question from beer producer in DC. So a question on the craft beer is the craft beer popular in Columbia and are there any imported craft beers from from Canada. So in case in case Claudio, if you could, if you know, or if you could point the our company in the right direction. Definitely there's I would say even more of a beer culture than a wine culture on in Columbia. Compared to say Chile or Argentina which are big wine producers as you know, they're both local. There are there's breweries as well as a lot of important ones. So I'll just touch you with some tariffs and taxes applying to alcoholic beverages and the same way that Canada has promises, Columbia has departments and therefore depending on where you ship them. Those taxes may vary so the best thing I reckon recommend is that you write to us at the email that I share, and we can have a more full some conversation about that but yes definitely a big consumer market for for craft beer. So it's reassuring for this busy company, I believe, and for many others to. Okay, I think there are more questions. Let me check the Q&A box. Okay. I think we have, we have had a few questions come in during the registration stage so I might just take those two and encourage others to think about other questions that you might still have on the top of your mind and just drop them either in the chat or in the Q&A box but I'll go with the with a few questions that we have. So there was one question from the life sciences sector and I think it would go to Claudio probably too. So there was a company asking they want to expand in the in the sector so they are from life sciences sector, but they acknowledge that most distributors need to register their product. I think that in Europe, for example, they need the CE marking for in vitro diagnostics and eventually they would need a similar to go through the similar process in Columbia markets as well. Can you comment on the registration of such in vitro diagnostics or is it something that you need to check and with your colleagues on. So the details of the registration of course I would need to double check but I can say with certainty that, as mentioned in the question there is a process here similar to what we have in Canada with and the FDA United States. The agency responsible for that in Columbia would be in Bima. Now that is obviously not insurmountable. There is a vibrant life science industry here in Columbia. We had in fact a Canadian clinical trial company. We also have a biotech company that recently did a joint venture with a local company to develop RNA vaccines for different therapies including COVID. And in terms of the medical devices, I think if these are manufactured in Canada, then absolutely. Again, given the large population, and the fact that there's rising demand, not only from upper middle class for for these type of individual diagnostic solutions, but also from the growing middle class, right. I can see that Columbia will be a good market test for this company. So, again, we never really go into the particulars because that requires more of a one on one conversation but in broad rush, the answer would be yes there's potential and there's a registration process but very well worth. Great. Thank you, Claudia. Thanks for this comprehensive answer. I think we have one more question from from the current attendees. There is a company, a local seafood exporter of Hake, Pacific Whiting, and they are in search of new markets. Claudia, do you think there are opportunities for this type of product in Columbia for the BC Hake? Sorry, I missed that. The product is a cake. Did I hear that wrong? Hake. So the variety of fish, Hake. Well, again, yes. And this can be done mostly through big retailers, which provide a really good distribution channel here in Columbia. And we know the vast majority of them, and in terms of getting to the retail side of things, that will be the introductions that we would make for you. There are a couple of events in Canada for every food and fish industry, such as Seattle, which alternates between Toronto and Montreal. If there is something in BC in terms of big trade fair that we can lure these buyers to, let us know. I don't have it currently on my radar, but it's always good intel to have. Otherwise, we welcome you to come to Columbia and we can introduce you one-on-one to these big grocery chains. There are about three or four in Columbia that have a presence across the country, including one that specializes in seafood and fish and seafood called Ipermar. Yeah, that's great. Thanks. Thanks, Claudia. I think there was one company that asks for clarification about the email address of Bogota Office of Trade Commissioner Service. Yeah, so that is the correct email that is in the chat. Yeah, it doesn't miss any letter. So I think we have one more question that we have received during the registration process and eventually it might go either to Juliana or to Raul. So this is a question from currently exporting company in manufacturing. So they consider that made in Canada products are quite expensive for buyers in developing countries located in South America. And those buyers cannot easily access financial options to buy their equipment. And the company cannot offer credit terms to foreign buyers easily either. So is there any anything in terms of EDC products that can help them find a solution, something that can help them facilitate the transactions? I understand it's quite high level as a question. And they would probably require one-on-one follow up, but they are a manufacturing company. I don't have any more details on them. But yes, essentially product made in Canada is expensive for the buyers and the buyers they don't have easy financial options to buy their equipment. So is there anything that EDC offers to Canadian companies or to South American companies that can help them with the credit terms? I can take this one and so it's Raul. So yeah, we do have a solution where we partner with a company that is specialized in Latin America for this type of financing. It has to be capital equipment. It has to be equipment that they can take a kind of a lean on. And then they can put together a package for financing, term financing up to up to five years. So that obviously is an incentive because the rates are cheaper than the local market in a sense. And then EDC backstop the transaction. That's through one of our programs that guarantee programs. But if interested, we can make the introduction to the representatives from Elevate. They are the ones who actually up front, they are the front for the solution. So the person that is interested will get in touch with them and then we can start the process with Elevate. So there is a solution and it always depends on how strong is as well the client in Colombia. If it's not obviously their financials is not, they are not as strong enough. It will be tough as well to put it together, but the solution exists for that. Great, thank you Raul. So I understand that you will work with the Canadian company, but you also need to know the details of the transaction of their partner to the market. Exactly. We will need to get in touch with their client with their potential buyer and get their financial statements like a normal financing transaction that will happen, let's say in Canada, but we will need their financials do a review and we will figure it out if it's possible to make the loan to the company directly. Great, thank you. And I see we have some clarifications about the email address of Bogota Office of Trade Commissioner Service. So please check the correct address that Claudio has just sent a few minutes ago. There was one letter missing indeed. It was not all, it was another letter, but yeah, please go back and check in the chat. And anyways, you will receive the emails, the email address and the contact details of all the panelists in the follow-up email. So there is one more question. Again, one more question about beer, but it is also connected to the logistics. So let me just read it out loud. Here in case it is of interest to other companies shipping goods as well. So what would be the ocean freight, the time of the ocean maritime route from Vancouver to Columbia, in case Claudio or Juliana or anyone knows. As you might as under 10 days, but you might have more. Yeah, no, we'll definitely have to check. We'll definitely have to check because I know that they are certainly bottlenecks currently in global supply chains and in ocean freight transportation. But so we'll try to get that answer. And again, maybe it's easier if we do it one-on-one. But again, whether it's Prince Rupert or Vancouver port to Buena Ventura, it's a direct line along the Pacific right. So the good thing is that you don't have to go through the Panama Canal in order to be able to ship to Columbia. Great. Thank you, Claudio. And I think we have one more question to EDC. So there is a company. So last year they had an issue with trying to get a letter of credit to support a contract with the Colombian Air Force. And still on the process of getting the insurance, there were protests in Columbia that happened and so the EDC did not provide the bond at that time. So there were some issues due to the human rights problems during the manifestations. And the question is if this is still an issue for this year. I see that the person who has the question is Christian. Christian, I will have to double check that. That's true that obviously last year there were some issues with some violence in the street. So I will have to find out because that's always moving. Our ESG group always are checking what's happening, the pulls of the market, what is going on. And at that time there were questions about, I guess, what happened. I will have to confirm with the group, with the bonding group, just to see what is their position in order to support those going forward. Especially because I think it was for the Colombian Air Force. So I have to check and we will get back to you on that as well. Juliana, as well, we will both get back to you. Thank you all. Yeah, and we'll be sharing the questions with the panelists as well so that you can follow up with the companies directly. I encourage also if you have other questions that something comes up after this webinar. We encourage you to get in touch either with myself or you can get in touch with the panelists directly too. Okay. So I don't see any more questions coming from the attendees at this stage. I might as well give you back some time to your day. And yeah, I think we can start dropping up this session unless there are any other questions that are coming. So seeing no more questions. I would like to thank all the panelists and everyone for attending today's webinar. Doing business in Colombia and Colombia Free Trade Agreement and business opportunities for PBC companies and thank you Claudio for specifying the difference between Colombia and Colombia. It is very timely and it is on the top of mind of many companies, diversifying the markets and looking into some opportunities in markets that are close to home, close to British Columbia, but still not as explored as others. So if there are any questions, please contact us at the contact details that you will find in a follow-up email. And the follow-up email will also have a link to view a recording of this webinar, PDF files of the presentations and a survey that we would appreciate if you could complete and provide your feedback on the session. And we are looking forward to seeing you in our future sessions and on behalf of PBC government and all our speakers, I want to thank you for joining us today and to wish you a great rest of your day. Thank you very much. Looking forward to working with you all. Thank you. Thank you, Anna. Have a good day everyone.