 Canada is a significant foreign aid donor and Canadian companies have provided technical and other assistance to Mali.Canadian companies have also significantly invested in Mali's mining sector.Owing to the Canadian government's policies on tied aid, approximately two-thirds of the one billion dollars (constant 2007 US $) that Canada has provided in bilateral official development assistance to Mali over the period 1960–2007 has returned to the Canadian private sector in the form of procurement contracts, chiefly in technical consulting, telecommunications, hydroelectricity, and railways.