Okay. Let's begin. Hi, everyone. Hi. My name is Ben Kaliznik, and I'm a senior manager in British Columbia's trade policy and negotiations branch of the Ministry of Jobs, Economics, Recovery and Innovation. Welcome and thank you for joining us for a webinar on doing business in Australia and New Zealand under the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, otherwise known as the CPTPP. Before I go any further, I want to acknowledge that I am conducting this webinar and I'm also living and working with deep gratitude and respect on the traditional territory of the Laquongan speaking people, the Esquimals and Songhees First Nations. Following some welcoming remarks today, you're going to hear from a few trade officials, as well as some businesses with some experience in the region. Our main objectives are really to raise awareness of the CPTPP and some of the opportunities that it provides in Australia and New Zealand. To provide you with some market intelligence and highlights and sectoral opportunities, let you know about the various levels of trade support available to you as well. Today's session is being recorded and will be shared with all registrants in a follow-up email along with the presentations that you see today and some other useful resources. If you are experiencing any audio or technical issues, please just send a message using the chat function and directed either to myself or you can also direct it to Flavia, who should be appearing for you on your screen. Please use the Q&A function at any time. It's at the bottom of your screen and you can pose questions for speakers there. You can ask questions at any time. We'll try to address them as they come in. But there will also be some time at the end of the session for any additional questions that there may be. Please be as specific as you can and indicate where possible who you are directing your question to. Now I would like to introduce our first speaker. The Honourable George Chow is DC's Minister of State for Trade. Mr. Chow has participated in all of our CPTPP sessions so far and has kindly agreed to join us today as well as next week at our CPTPP Japan webinar as well, which I hope you can all join. Thank you, Minister, for joining us today. I will turn things over to you. Minister, I'm just going to get you to unmute here. Okay, I'm good. Can you hear me? Perfect, yes. Okay, great. Well, thank you Ben and good afternoon to all of you in British Columbia and good morning to those of you in Australia and New Zealand. And my name is George Chow and I'm the Minister of State for Trade for British Columbia. I'm pleased to speak to you from the city of Victoria in British Columbia on the traditional territory of the Lukwankan speaking peoples. And I bring greetings on behalf of our PMIR, John Horgan, and thank you for joining us today. Thank you also to the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, Global Affairs Canada, and Export Development Canada for partnering with the Government of British Columbia on this event and joining us today here virtually. I hope we can all meet in person soon as we gradually return to more in-person meetings and events. Well, in terms of economic context today, whether it's the ongoing recovery from the pandemic or the challenges brought upon by adverse weather events, I know you are all working hard running your businesses. I'm here to show my appreciation to you for continuing to create jobs and grow the BC economy. And for those who are seeking to export, whether for the first time or to a new market, I hope this session will be helpful for your trade plans. And we have exciting work plans in terms of trade diversification. Even though our immediate economic priority are outlined in stronger BC, this plan will make life more affordable, train for the jobs of tomorrow, tackle climate change, and position BC for success in the global economy. I know that your business have been hit hard by supply chain challenges and global unrest. It is unfortunate that the response of many national governments has been to restrict exports and implement other protectionist measures. It's clear to our government that trade diversification is more critical than ever. My mandate as a Minister of State for trade includes the development and implementation of a new trade diversification strategy. The strategy will allow businesses to connect with more international partners, creating more jobs in BC, and helping to protect BC's trade network from supply chain disruption, market instability, and geographically specific trends and changes. Free trade agreement information session like today's webinar are meant to highlight the opportunity of free trade agreement that can make you more competitive in the global marketplace. Free trade agreements are not a complete solution for trade diversification, but hopefully session like today can demystify free trade agreement and help you leverage them where it makes sense. And let's talk about CPTPP or the Comprehensive Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership and its benefit. So Australia was BC's 11 largest goods export destination in 2021 with export from BC totaling more than $325 million. New Zealand was BC's 21st largest goods export destination in 2021 and the export to New Zealand is $113 million. BC and Australia and New Zealand share a strong and diversified commercial relationship and have made efforts to promote inclusive trade. The CPTPP offers opportunity for BC businesses across many sectors in order to enter Australia and New Zealand, or to expand our presence there. BC exporter of mining and forest products as well as some agri-food already funding success in Australia and New Zealand. The CPTPP also presents us with the chance to become better integrated with the global value chain, so prevalent in the Indo-Pacific region. The CPTPP makes BC provider of goods and services more competitive than providers from countries that do not have a free trade agreement with these countries. Whether it's better market access or other benefits offered under CPTPP, I hope you are able to take advantage of this trade agreement to expand and diversify your exports. BC trade support network, our network, it's a provincial trade investment network that stretches the globe from BC to Asia, Europe and the United States. Our trading investment teams have continued develop opportunities, facilitate virtual business to business meetings, and stay connected to key contacts in all markets. These trading investment offices provide many services, including market intelligence, helping you to fund buyer or partner and representing BC's export goods at meetings and events. Their job is to create an accelerated opportunity for BC exporters like you. We have forged strong relationship with other trading investment focused partner, like those speaking at today's webinar and we will work together to support your trade needs. I encourage you to connect with our provincial trade team and as well as our partners to discuss the opportunity created by the CPTPP. So in conclusion, I hope today's webinar provides you with the information and tools you need to explore and succeed in new markets, and I hope you will consider Australia or New Zealand if it aligns with your business plans. My ministry staff offer many information sessions on how Canada's trade agreement can benefit your businesses, workers, community and investors. Our webinar, as Ben said, on doing business in Japan under the CPTPP is taking place on June 7. So please sign up for that if it's of interest to you. It has been a pleasure to speak with you online and have a great day. Thank you. Thank you very much, Minister Chow, for setting that context for us and you're welcoming remarks today you've certainly given our attendees a lot to think about and consider. I really appreciate you taking the time to join us today. Yeah, thank you, Ben. Next I would like to welcome to the virtual stage, Diane Belevo and Inyop Kim. Diane and Inyop are going to talk about what export development Canada, EVC, has to offer businesses like yours in Australia and New Zealand markets. So please take it away Diane and Inyop. Thank you, Ben. Hi, everyone. Is everyone see the screen? Good? All good. I guess it's all good. Okay. Oh, good. Diane, you want to introduce yourself first and then I go next. I can do that. I'm Diane Belevo. I'm the chief representative for Australia and New Zealand. I'm based in Sydney since last July, EVC opened an office in Australia about five years ago. Hi, everyone. My name is Inyop Kim. I'm here from Vancouver office of EVC. I'm helping Canadian exporters be successful in the globally. And it's our pleasure to be here today to talk about the Australian and New Zealand market. I want to start it off with what we do at our export development Canada. This is Canada's export credit agency. We are fully owned by federal government. We are mandated to help Canadian companies successful in a global stage. For over the 75 years, we are helping Canadian companies through our risk mitigation programs, financial programs and our trade knowledge programs. When I ask what EVC does, I usually put our programs in four different buckets. It's easy to understand. So the first program we do is a financing program. A lot of times you go abroad then what you need is a working capital, additional working capital. But sometimes your financial institution is reached their risk appetite because maybe your inventory is not in Canada. Your account receivables is affordable. So what we do is we put a guarantee on your bank loans so that bank lends you more. And also the letters of credit if you need to issue for your suppliers or sometimes it's a lease. We also backstop being that letters of credit so that you could access to your working capital. And as an international expert, international risk expert, we providing the AR insurance so that you could protect yourself against nonpayment risk. And also you could determine who do you want to do business with. And over the times we really built up our expertise around trade knowledge. You have any questions around shipping, taxation, customs, please feel free to reach out to any of us. We do have a dedicated team that help you navigate through these challenges. This program is basically free. It's a high cost programs but all Canadian exporters could utilize this program. And also we do have a connection program. You set your target market and you're looking for introduction for appropriate suppliers, buyers or vendors. We do make an introduction so you could extend your business network. I want to talk about a little bit deep into our insurance and financial solutions. And then these are the live links so that you could take a look at more information later of the webinar. So AR insurance is we are covered up to 90% of your AR in case of a nonpayment. And at the same time you could increase your working capital access because your bank will give you a higher margin value for those insured ARs. And for as I mentioned for a loan guarantee program is very well utilized so that you could have access to working capital. And that's also very popular during this time because a lot of companies going through working capital crunch due to supply chain disruptions. And other risk factor I want to point it out is a foreign exchange risk when you're going across the border because you're dealing with a foreign exchange currency. I highly recommend you talk to your financial advisor, talk about FX hedging strategies, and we also backstopping that hedging strategy instrument. And lastly, I want to talk about the buyer financing support. For instance, I have a client who has a agriculture equipment manufacturer, and then they want to go to find buyers in other foreign markets. And if there's a buyer financing together you, it makes your products more competitive. So we helping Canadian exporters providing bio financing guarantees as well. And then we do have other programs available. So feel free to check out our website and or just a talk to one of us. We'll pass it on to Diane so that she could share her insights and perspectives in doing business in Australia and New Zealand. Thank you very much, and I'll take you through a couple of points very quickly and I'm very happy that you were able to get a good sense of the toolbox that EDC has to offer to support you and exporting in around the world but today we'll be talking about Australia and New Zealand. Australia and New Zealand are actually quite easy countries to do business with. They are English speaking. And they're also have a similar jurisdiction legal system as Canada so it's comforting if you will to be there it's easy to find yourself in this type of environment and to operate in this type of environment. Both countries have a strong economy, strong banking markets, and also strong ties trading partners throughout the Pacific. So this can bring you through the Pacific region. It's also open to global trade and investments, including in particular the CPTPP which we will hear more about a little bit later. As easy as it sounds as as comfortable as it may sound to do business in Australia and New Zealand, there are some challenges. One of which is the logistics. For sure right now the shipping supply chain we talk about that a lot everything is expensive is is very complicated, but on a normal day, Australian New Zealand are far the shipping costs are high. And there are some wait times to do that so that should be taken in consideration. There are extreme weather conditions unfortunately, not very much unlike BC, I have to say between drought and floods and fires, these are things that you see as well. Earthquakes particularly in New Zealand so that can disrupt some of your business, sometimes and unpredictable of course, there's a well established competition in both markets as you should well be aware of. And I think that would be one of the main challenges as well so you have to know your market, do your homework and make sure that your product is is adapted and has a good market opportunity here in New Zealand and Australia. And if you want to make production here skill labor shortages are common as it is in Canada as well. We can go to the next and I'll finish off very quickly on that I have my timer next to me so I know that the time stuff line. We're running out of it. How to be successful. It's important to establish a local present of one way or another, whether it's a distributor, whether it's a physical presence. It helps with the time zones. It helps with getting closer to your clients here. The cultures are similar, but you have little differences so if you come here and your client offers you to go out for coffee, a coffee meeting, maybe in Canada we're a little bit disappointed what you don't want to see me in your office. Here it's it's it's normal course of business to conduct business over coffee sometimes even beers. You can find some more tips online at EDC we did a little video about that so don't be shy to go and check that out. And my last slide before we leave the key sectors for Australia mining energy it's transitioning into renewable power clean tech renewable infrastructure and services. New Zealand, mostly services forestry agriculture infrastructure large project infrastructure and clean tech. If you have any questions at all. Here's a team. The BC team is here to help you. I'm well connected with the BC team they know where to find me and we're happy to support in whatever you need. And our decks some pointers as well on the last page some links to help you out of the toolbox. Thank you very much I appreciate Ben again thank you for inviting us for this webinar it's been a pleasure to be here with you today. Thank you. Thank you very much for joining Diane and you for for outlining what these markets and EDC have to offer. And I will just note that all of those links in that presentation the presentation as I said will be shared with attendees in the coming days. And Diane is someone who organizes many webinars I really appreciate you watching the timer. And I say this knowing that I'll probably be struggling to stay within my own time later so anyway, Diane and in the upper here throughout I believe so please direct any questions you may have to them through the Q&A. Next I want to introduce our next speaker Martin Artenau, who is Vice Consul and trade commissioner with Canada's trade commissioner service in Australia. Martin is going to speak about Australia and New Zealand today, although I will note that we do also have trade commissioner service representative from New Zealand on the line as well and. And so I think they're they're well equipped to answer your questions, any questions that there may be about both of those markets. Over to you, Martin. Thank you Ben I'll just quickly share my screen won't be long. All right, so hi everyone. Good afternoon, I guess for people in DC. Good morning for people in New Zealand and Australia. And my name is nothing so no I'm a trade commissioner I'm based in Sydney, Australia. I've been here for four years I'm a Canadian, I've been working in Australia finding opportunities for this Canadian businesses for for a few years now so I will share with you my insights. Thank you to in aid and the end before me to giving us a very good overview of what the climate this the climate of the business is in Australia and New Zealand. I will dig more into that in a few minutes I will give you more specific opportunities. So I will give you a highlight of what our free trade agreements are so far. And I want to also highlight what we do as trade commissioners. It's not everyone I think in Canada who knows what we do so it's important to remind it. We are the Canadian trade commissioners services. We work with Canadian businesses we will help you export, or either invest in other countries so we have a range of services we provide to you we can provide you with market information we can assess your capability to export in certain countries. We can share with you key contacts in in our respective markets. We have offices across Canada so if you are interested to to work with us, contact us through our regional offices, you will, you will meet one of my colleague in Vancouver in a few minutes. So that's it in a nutshell we're here to help you it's a free service it's provided by the government of Canada. I'll start quickly by giving you a very quick portrait of the Canada's free trade agreements that we have in place. Canada is quite unique. We are as you know a trading nation and in order to maintain our competitive edge. We quickly realized that we had to negotiate free trade agreements with other countries in order to to stay on top of the game. We now have 15 free trade agreements currently in force with 49 countries so it gives us access preferential access I should say to to 1.5 billion countries across the world. We are also in a unique position in the G7 we're the only country of the G7 who has access under free trade agreements to every other member of the G7. So it's an interesting thing to highlight I think the key principle of the free trade agreements is to provide non discrimination and national treatments to every Canadian companies so what it means is basically wherever you go in other free trade agreements market you will be treated as a domestic company. So if you come here and do business in Australia or New Zealand you will be treated the same way as Australian businesses or New Zealand businesses. There's also a big focus on transparency in those free trade agreements so it ensures that the rules for accessing and operating in a free trade agreement market are public available and accessible so again it ensures that you will be treated the same way as a domestic company here. It gives you also preferential access you will have better opportunities and better access. So right now I want to share with you this one this slide very quickly we have as you know free trade agreements with the US it was our first one. Mexico of course in all of Europe now most of Europe I should say what's interesting with the CPTPP is that before it we only had one free trade agreement in Asia and it was with South Korea. Now with the CPTPP we have access to Australia on top of that Japan which is the third largest economy in the world Singapore New Zealand Vietnam Malaysia will join will sign and ratify the CPTPP soon as well as Brunei. And there's a whole series of Asian countries who have expressed an interest in joining the CPTPP we're talking of Thailand, China, the Philippines and a few more are coming in so it's going to be quite interesting I think in terms of opportunities for Canadian companies. Now I will highlight general free trade agreements benefits that we have. I'll go quickly through that because then as a presentation after where you will dig deeper into that. But the main benefits that comes into mind when we think of these free trade agreements is is the tariff it's the exports of goods. Most tariffs are now done. I'd say that 99% of all the tariffs are down on goods so it's pretty interesting. And the way to to access that is shown here but again they'll then will tell you more in a few minutes. So, I won't I won't give you all the details there. Just know that there are tools available for you you can see at the bottom of the slide there. You have a tariff finder that's CA tool where you can determine if you have to pay duties or not on certain goods. And you also have a phone number it's the Canada Border Service Agency outline it's simply called Border Service Information. You can call them if you have questions about sporting or importing, and they will help you through the process. I talked a bit briefly about it before but the free trade agreements provides transparency and predictable market through various ways that are embedded in the agreement. The whole idea is that you know in advance the rule of the game and that you are treated the same way as a domestic company. Something that is less known of our free trade agreements is that you have a facilitated way of entry into these FDA market. So under CPTPP you don't you don't know it but when you apply for a visa or a work permit, you are accessing a faster lane in the immigration system, which means you will get your permits much faster. It's it will lower the cost related to HR management. It helps you in many ways anyway to to get a faster service and that's the whole idea of this of these conditions on free trade agreements. Something else that is not well known of Canadian businesses is that CPTPP as well as other free trade agreements we have is that they open up the foreign government procurement market. That is huge. In average, 10% of GDP of a country is spent on government procurement. So basically you have access to Australia government procurement as well as New Zealand, just like a local company does. And it's huge and New Zealand in New Zealand last year did the government procurement market was about $50 billion in Australia and it's about five times more. So what it gives you is the ability to compete on a level playing field with the local companies. Again, we have access to the tender mechanism, just like the Australian company does and the New Zealand company does. You just click on the links there that are shown on the screen, and you have access basically to the tenders available to you. I'll highlight a few specifics of our markets. The sector that we cover proactively in Australia are aerospace, agriculture, clean tech, defense, security, education, forest product, ICT, life science, mining and oil and gas. In New Zealand, we cover clean tech information, communication and technology as well, and life science as well. And what that means is that we have three commissioners here on the ground who are experts in all these sectors, and it can help you find potential buyers. If you want to know more about this, I will invite you to contact us. I will share with you our contact information on the last slide. I will, I had more to share with you, but unfortunately I don't think we have time, but I have a lot of examples I can show you around all of these proactive sectors that we cover. I just want to tell you that Australia and New Zealand are rich countries. They have diversified economies, so there are a lot of opportunities, but there are challenges as well. If Australians are already producing something that you want to sell here, it's going to be a challenge for you to access opportunities here. So if you have a unique product or a service that will greatly help you in doing business here. I want to finish last by sharing with you some resources and tools that we have. We have, I told you about the tariff finder before, but we also have the market potential finder, which is quite interesting. You can enter a goods HS code, the goods that you want to export into our tool, and it will give you a market potential market to explore where you could sell your goods. I think it's quite interesting as a tool because we don't always know where to go. The world is quite large, so it can help you greatly. Last, I'm sharing with you our contact email. So I'll plan the office as well as Sydney and Canberra offices as well as the Vancouver office. Speaking of the Vancouver office, I will give the floor now to my colleague in Vancouver. I think I'm not sharing the screen anymore, right? Oh, good. Yeah. We're okay. I hope you're doing well. Sounds good. So I share, I send, I give the floor to Eric Peterson in Vancouver. Thanks. Good afternoon, everybody. My name is Eric Peterson. I'm a trade commissioner in the Pacific regional office here in Vancouver. And as Martin mentioned, I'm kind of the domestic angle of the trade commissioner service. So my goal is to be client facing to the region while Mountaine is very much focused on the country there to find the best opportunities for you and your companies. So my goal is to provide you with market intelligence, with the preparation for international markets. The best advice that I can give you to prepare you as you delve further into internationalization. We have some funding programs. The biggest investment of them is CanExport SME. And it helps with all sorts of different things to help you internationalize whether it's attending trade shows or investing in your IP protection. There's all sorts of things which can be used. And that funding can be used for internationalization. And for the advice that we provide, as Marcel was saying, it's free of charge. We are basically your international business consultant for trying to offshore what you do for reaching those international markets for your sales. Whether it's in Australia, New Zealand, whether it's in other countries associated with the Trans-Pacific Partnership or further afield. I'm very glad to have conversations with you. We also have a number of dedicated professionals who support different sectors here in the region. So for example, I've worked in defense, I've worked in life sciences, cyber security, I do export controls and sanctions issues. We have other officers who deal with agri-food, professional services, ICT. And so we're very glad to have an introductory chat with you to learn more about what your international goals are and how we can help you to meet those goals. Whether it's plugging you into our network of trade commissioners such as Maltay, or if it's offering you advice on responsible business conduct on the best ways which we can protect your brand and your business as you go abroad. So I'm very glad to be in touch. I can leave my contact information in the chat, but all the best of luck for your international business plans. So I guess it will go back to Ben perhaps. Ben, do I pass the ball to you? You sure can. Thank you, Eric. Hopefully our attendees will reach out and explain they have a suit need assistance from you based in Vancouver. And thank you also, Marten, for your insightful remarks. I think it's great to hear from somebody who has put that on the ground presence in Australia. And I know we also have Maria Lowe and I believe Fabian Bovis from the Trade Commissioner Service in New Zealand as well who are here. And I think this is a great opportunity to pose any questions you may have for them. Maybe it will come to you throughout the session. Please use that Q&A function. And in fact, there is one question right now in the chat. And Marten, maybe I will just pose it to you. And it is about, I'm just paraphrasing here, but it is wondering why this person is wondering why SIRV is so difficult to deal with. And I recognize that this is an Australian system, but I wonder if there's anything that you come across Marten in your work in dealing with that process. Anything you can say or maybe any resources that you might be able to point this attendee to. Thanks, Bran. It's a good question. So good that unfortunately I don't have the answer to it. It's not covered by my sector specifically, but I can definitely ask. If you can give me, I don't know who asked the questions. Tony, I guess. Tony, if you can give me, can you export reporting system portal? That's a good question. It's not something that we deal with on our end. It's probably, I think it refers to the CBSA system, right, Tony? I think if you have a comment or questions about the system, I think you should contact the CBSA outline and the number I provided you before. It can help you with it. It's unfortunately not something that I have any power on. Okay, Marten. Sorry to put you on the spot there. We will connect. Tony, I will connect with you afterwards and we will get you the information you need to get the answers. Okay. Okay, I'm going to just keep moving along and I see that a couple more questions have come in. We'll post those at the end of the session. So now I will just ask someone to put my presentation up. There we go. Terrific. Can you just jump to the first slide, please? All right, I'm going to talk a little more about the CPTPP as Marten mentioned, dive into a few more details. It will be a little more technical, so please bear with me. Before I do, I just want to mention that the trade policy and negotiations branch, which is the branch that I work for, represents DC's interest in both international and domestic free trade agreements negotiations, represents those interests to Canada, of course, as the party to those international agreements, but also is responsible for any trade disputes affecting British Columbia. And we also do these kinds of things, these three trade agreement promotion events to really try to just raise awareness of the FDA's and the opportunities in them and provide some information on how to leverage them. So I'm going to jump through a couple of slides just because I know Marten covered some of this very well. The first thing I just wanted to mention, though, is with the CPTPP. When it was being negotiated, DC did some economic modeling and it found really that DC was expected to benefit more under the CPTPP than under the original TPP, the Trans-Pacific Partnership. And this was driven largely by the US departure from that original agreement, so that really ensured that DC businesses like yours would have a leg up on your US competitors in the CPTPP market. And so that's great, but as Marten also noted, this competitive edge won't last forever. The agreement is designed to accept new members or expand, assuming they meet all of the requirements of the agreement. And so it means that your preferential access can grow as more members join the agreement, but at the same time, you may face more competition as other members join the agreement. That's really why DC is doing as much as it can to capitalize on this advantage and support you to leverage the opportunities under the agreement in Australia and New Zealand and beyond. Next slide please. So, you know, we know that that you don't have the time to be navigating trade agreements. Some of them are very complex and long. The CPTPP itself is, you know, it's over a thousand pages that has 30 chapters with mechanics for each party. In any fact, it's really bilateral, 10 bilateral agreements that Canada has entered, rather than one sort of comprehensive consistent multilateral agreement. As Marten said, it does cover traditional areas of free trade agreements, like goods and services and investment, but it also covers more modern elements of economic partnerships, things like digital trade. There is also a dedicated SME chapter. It is really about encouraging greater SME participation in trade and, you know, whether that's trying to make government procurement opportunities more accessible, whether it's sort of tackling anti-corruption and addressing unfair competition by state-owned enterprises. There are things in this agreement that are not necessarily found in all of the FTAs that Canada is a part of. Fortunately, these things seem to be included more and more as Canada enters into more modern FTAs. So one thing I would mention here is the inclusive trade provisions that are part of the agreement. It is a priority for British Columbia and Canada has indicated it is a priority as well. And this is really about seeking to ensure that the benefits of these FTAs really accrue to as many people as possible, particularly underrepresented, traditionally underrepresented export groups like women, indigenous or youth owned businesses. The CPTPP reaffirms things like the importance of corporate social responsibility, the cultural identity and diversity, gender equality, indigenous rights, and many other areas of the trade. And finally, the agreement also preserves the right of government to regulate in the public interest. So here are, I know there's a lot of information up on the screen here and Martín has already talked about a really useful resource with the tariff finder. Of course, tariff cuts and elimination are kind of one of the most tangible aspects of free trade agreements. They're sort of the thing that people point to first. Of course, they make your products more competitive in the market in question, and once fully implemented 99% of tariff lines among CPTPP parties will be tariff free, which is great. Now what you see on the screen here is Australia's rates under the CPTPP compared with the tariffs that it applies on products from countries that don't have an FTA with Australia. This is also known as the MFN rate, most favored nation rate. And, you know, to be honest, Australia didn't really have high tariffs to begin with. So the tariff reductions you see here and on key products really aren't as, they don't may not look as attractive as say when we look at Vietnam's tariff reductions because they were starting with very high tariffs to begin with. Nonetheless, who doesn't want five or 10% less on their products going into a country. And these are just a few examples. I really would encourage you to take a look at the kind of the tariff finder, which I will please show you a slide into slides from now. Please move to the next slide. This is the same thing, but for New Zealand, and just like Australia, New Zealand had fairly low tariffs to begin with. These examples I pulled out based on some of the things that New Zealand imports quite a lot of, but also things that DC produces and where possible some of these favorable tariff production. But, you know, beyond these tariffs, what FTAs do like the CTPP is really address non-tariff barriers and this can sometimes it can actually be more beneficial to you as a business owner because it's harder to quantify the cost of these non-tariff barriers but certainly it can save a lot of time and money by addressing them. And so these are things like differing standards, duplicative testing or unreasonably onerous labeling or certification procedures. You know, in many cases, some of these may be important for health and safety, but when they are not, when there's no valid reason for them and they're hindering trade, these kinds of things need to be addressed. The first thing is the CPTPP does this by encouraging the use of internationally accepted standards. It establishes committees to address these types of specific non-tariff barriers. And if you are facing these types of barriers, we definitely want to know. I know that the Trade Commission Service can definitely raise these with their colleagues in the federal government and when we are meeting with our colleagues in Public Service Canada or CDSA or wherever it may be, it's the things that we raise with them. Next slide, please. This is just a screenshot from Canada. Paraphinder, it's a great tool. It's easy to get started. You just need to know the market you're interested in and your product. And you can do that by a keyword or an HS code, so I strongly encourage you to take a look at that. Next slide, please. Martina covered some of this, so I won't get into too much detail here. You talked about their preferences and rules of origin compliance. These things can be quite complicated. The, you know, every agreement, every agreement including CPTPP may have slightly different rules. And so that's unfortunate, but I'll talk about something in a minute that will hopefully help that situation. You know, generally, if your product is fully originating from Canada, then your group should be fine. But if once you start to have a product that contains inputs from various locations, then it may get a little complicated. The good thing about the CPTPP is that the rule of accumulation applies. And so under this agreement, a good is still originating, even if it is being produced by different producers in different areas of the CPTPP area. So that's something that you can really leverage to be able to take advantage of the global value chains in the CPTPP region. Martina talked about claiming preferential access. Unfortunately, it's not automatically granted. But the good thing with the CPTPP, unlike some of the other FTAs that we have is that the exporter producer or importer can fill out the certificate of origin, which is great. It doesn't have to be a prescribed format. It needs to be in writing, which includes electronically and there are some minimum data requirements, of course, those are all outlined quite clearly on the CPTPP website. But beyond that, if it's in English, it has to be accepted. And it can also apply to multiple shipments of the same goods, which is also a positive. The next thing on the slide here is something called an advanced ruling. And this is, I know that some of this can sound overwhelming, especially if you if you haven't started exporting. But what an advanced ruling is it's really one of the single most effective tools in in an exporting toolbox and what it does is really give you certainty by applying to the relevant customs authority to determine if the product is has been coded properly under the right HS code, but also whether it meets those rules of origin we were just talking about. And so these are these are written into the CPTPP and many other FTAs. They are binding on that customs authority. So once they make that ruling, they have to abide by it. And usually there is no or very little cost to going through this process. So it's something I would encourage you to take a look at. Next slide please. Okay. Again, Martin talked about some of this, not necessarily with respect to services but you know he did talk about being treated fairly and being treated as though you were a domestic producer or a domestic supplier and that's really what the main point of this slide is here. It is, you know, the CPTPP like all FTAs contain some core obligations around things like national treatment and most favorite nation so knowing that your service in this case will be not going to receive any worse treatment than Australia or New Zealand are providing their other FTA or WTO partners is one thing and the same thing with national treatment, knowing that your good will provide will be provided that domestic treatment is also should be reassuring. Another thing I'll mention here is that the parties should not be imposing any sort of restrictions on the quantity or the types of entities that can be supplying services within their border. Excuse me. Service providers also benefit under the CPTPP from some increased market access. So in with Australia in particularly professional computer related R&D construction and environmental services. There's an increased market access under this agreement. And then with New Zealand professional R&D construction education environmental and energy distribution services. And touched on temporary entry. I think the only thing I'll mention here is that there is there. Both parties both countries do have slightly different requirements so please don't if you determine that you are eligible to enter under Australia for example. Please don't just assume that you also are eligible to enter into New Zealand because they may have slightly different requirements there. So I'll move on to my last slide and that is on investment. These concepts really just mirror everything that I that I really just talked about with respect to services. So, you know, the idea with the CPTPP is to create as fair and transparent of an investment climate as possible. You know, national treatment and MSN are the same standards that I just went through. They cannot be implementing things like performance requirements. They can't require that you know that they can't tie to your investment by local requirement or something like that. Your investments are covered protected against things like expropriation except for specific circumstances and when accompanied by adequate compensation. So, the entry applies in this case it is applicable for Australia but not New Zealand. So, that is the end of my presentation you can move to the next slide please just my contact information which you will get by email anyway. I know I went through that quite quickly, and I apologize but I just wanted to finish by saying if you are interested in these markets or if you're interested in leveraging the CPTPP or any FDA. Please do contact me and I'll make sure that you get connected with the right people. Now, that awkward moment when I have to now transition from myself to our next speaker. So, I'm going to next introduce Dr. A. W. Lee, who is a senior program manager, diversity and inclusive growth strategy for women entrepreneurs with the Asia Pacific Foundation Canada. Thank you for joining us today, I'll turn it over to you. Thanks, Ben, can you hear me. Yeah. Great. I'm going to share my screen. Can you see that. Great. Great. Kia ora. Hello, a Bonjour to everyone in BC Australia and New Zealand so thanks for the introduction Ben and my name is a W Lee and I support women and gender non binary entrepreneurs to introduce them, and their companies to new markets in the Asia Pacific are dedicated trade missions specifically designed for them. And so, I would also like to acknowledge that I joined you from the traditional territory of the Huron Wendah, and shanabeg and Haudenosaunee peoples and I would like to offer my sincere gratitude as a racialized migrant settler to my friends and neighbors, and thank you for joining Cahaka Bay of Clinton Mohawks for continuing to steward the land that we share. And it is through my commitment to growing ties of friendship between Canada and Asia with the women's trade missions that I'm here to talk to you about that I'm also committed to growing economic prosperity, not just for diverse women entrepreneurs but also supporting economic opportunities for indigenous businesses to share in global economic growth between our regions and so some background about our foundation if you're here, we are a nonprofit national think tank focused on building bridges and strengthening ties between Canada and Asia and our mission is to be Canada's catalyst for engaging with Asia and be Asia's bridge to Canada vice versa. So, in that vein, stemming from national focus group research that we conducted in 2017 2018 with convening women in business across Canada. We delivered the first ever Canadian women only business mission to Japan in 2019 and following the success of that trade mission we then went on to conduct and lead missions to South Korea, Taiwan, India and Australia and New Zealand and we have an upcoming in person trade mission this year, which I'll touch on briefly at the end. But for Australia and New Zealand in December of 2021 and in partnership with CEO and with strong support from both the private and public sectors including EDC and the trade mission service on the call today. APF Canada hosted our first Canadian women only virtual trade mission to Australia and New Zealand, and a key supporting organization in that initiative was indigi x, an organization based in Western Canada that facilitates the connection of indigenous professionals around the world, encouraging collaboration and economic growth, identifying business opportunities and engaging in international trade and with indigi x is strong connections between Canada and New Zealand and Australia, we were able to highlight the theme of partnership opportunities specifically between indigenous women owned businesses in Canada and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and Maori owned businesses in Australia and New Zealand, respectively. So, we introduced a select delegation of 20 women and gender non binary entrepreneurs from Canada to Australia and New Zealand. The mission included several market training opportunities leading up to the conference in December. We had several of our panelists here or their colleagues provide high level market opportunity analysis in Australia and New Zealand, which is very helpful. And in December, we had high level discussions of gender inclusion with ministerial participation, touching on best practices policy opportunities to advance gender equity and trade and business and broadly, but most importantly, of all we facilitated 160 B to B meetings for our delegates across Australia and New Zealand. So, through our third party B to B consultants, and the story that I want to emphasize here is that our intentional pursuit of inclusive trade opportunities opened up strategic market entry for many of our delegates and especially for our indigenous women owned businesses. So here is a snapshot of some of our B to B meetings that were facilitated and if you've ever been a part of any trade mission or trade show you'll know that not all the meetings result in tangible outcomes but we are very proud of many of our delegates who and about a third of our meetings with New Zealand counterparts have continued in negotiations for partnership collaborations either for distribution or direct purchase or R&D partnership. And some have already reached the stage of signing on disclosure agreements to move on to their next stage of negotiations and in Australia we have we had about 11 negotiations ongoing from our across our approximately 20 delegates, and especially for our indigenous owned companies we received reports that almost all of them had potential for collaboration with some of their meetings with follow on negotiations from at least one of their meetings. And, and so I want to emphasize that inclusive trade and progressive social policy create, we believe creates this real, these real opportunities for market entry, especially for women owned businesses and indigenous owned businesses so like Canada, Australia and New Zealand, like was touched on previous speakers are like minded rules based countries with shared values and social policy objectives such as advancing gender equity, supporting women owned businesses and racialized minority groups and especially supporting indigenous owned businesses in their pursuit of economic reconciliation. And we share a lot of ESG goals so stated policy goals supporting climate action and gender equity leading to general sector opportunities. For example New Zealand, their government procurement rules include a broader based broader outcomes based framework which incorporate government procurement rules, requiring government agencies to consider a specific priority outcomes when buying from designated sectors. And this includes procuring solutions for zero net emissions and meeting their goal of significantly reducing waste so this creates opportunities for circular economy solutions energy efficiency companies carbon capture etc etc. And one other specific provision includes upskilling women in domestic construction. Particularly if you provide services to construction to the construction sector this could incentivize you to leverage this channel to market by partnering with women companies in New Zealand to to deliver your services or products and practically speaking one of our delegates company, their product and value proposition aligned with this because she designs gear and wearables specifically work for women and trade and so she was very interested in this, this potential opportunity. And so, like Martin and Ben mentioned procurement is a significant interest to many of our delegate companies. And so many of whom were in clean tech and the medical technology sector so they're interested in engaging public sector agencies for procurement contracts and so, like both Ben and Martin mentioned the government procurement chapter in the CPTPP allows us Canadian companies at BC companies to compete fairly in the procurement process. And so come Canadian companies will receive the same treatment as domestic suppliers when bidding on on these tenders but. And so as part of our trade mission, and through our in market B2B partners we had our delegates introduced to the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment in New Zealand which guided our companies through their government. So the electronic tender system the gets which Martin mentioned and aus tender is the Australian equivalent which they both allow international and domestic companies to submit their bids for these tenders but because they are wide open. It is also highly competitive so while they don't give preferential treatment to the domestic companies, they obviously have some natural advantages being closer to their government customers. And so shipping costs familiarity with regulatory agencies so this is where developing in part in market partners can help, and is the sole focus of our, our business missions. So if any of you have been part of the procurement process you'll know in any country you'll know that it can be difficult and sometimes bureaucratic with long lead times, and Australia and New Zealand are no different. So like Canada inclusive growth are stated policy objectives in all our countries so we believe that companies can leverage social policy procurement rules and principles when thinking about entering the market through international partnership development. So even though those rules and principles may not apply to you as a foreign company. Domestic groups domestic comp. Sorry, companies in Australia and New Zealand that satisfy those those requirements is is a very smart strategy which many of our delegates chose to do and see an opportunity. Australia has the Commonwealth procurement rules, which are administered by the Department of Finance and dictate that contracts be tendered with an eye to broader benefits to the Australian economy and and society, and they're connected to procurement connected policies that are used to connect to those procurement purchases with wider social goals so this includes the indigenous procurement policy and the workplace gender equality procurement principles. So this letter require companies with over 100 companies to demonstrate compliance with workplace gender equity act in order to receive larger contracts so this was of particular interest to some of our delegates who offered software as a service that utilize AI machine learning for regulatory compliance and they could easily apply it to the to the Australian context. The indigenous procurement policy is a procurement connected policy that sets targets for purchasing volume and value from indigenous enterprises this is Australian indigenous enterprises. And this has generated over $5.3 billion Australian dollars for indigenous enterprises, increasing the number of contracts, tendered to indigenous companies by more than 400%. The US and US side's are a really good opportunity to incentivize BC companies Canadian companies to work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders companies. And in New Zealand they have a similar target of 5% of contract by volume to go to Maori owned businesses, and it works out that some of our delegates companies include their their sales models include software licensing solutions for our own businesses that we connected them with. And so the point here is that inclusive goal of supporting Indigenous companies in both regions can be leveraged into a bilateral opportunity for some companies if your value proposition and sales model do align. And this could be a potential channel to market for you if partnering with Indigenous companies in market. So I just want to leave off with it's true that Canada, Australia and New Zealand are all at different stages of reconciliation and we have a very far way to go. This week, for example, is National Reconciliation Week in Australia and their new Prime Minister has made some significant commitments to move the dial on reconciliation which potentially could open up new opportunities for doing business with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander companies. And all three are uniquely bound together by strong and growing relationships between Indigenous peoples presenting significant opportunities for Maori, First Nations, Inuit and Métis, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders to connect not only on social and cultural opportunities, but also business and trade. And so we're at the Asia Pacific very proud to support these international relations between Indigenous people, women and racialized entrepreneurs which we believe is a win-win both on social policy and business objectives. And so I'm sorry, I know Ben, I'm a little over but if I may just plug a couple of upcoming opportunities, one for our partner, CEO, which helps connect women and non-binary entrepreneurs with financing and capital. They are accepting applications for new ventures in Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Canadian applications are due in September and if you are already at the stage of having a registered entity and are generating revenue in Australia or New Zealand, even if you are a Canadian company, if you have presence there and are generating revenue, then applications are due very soon, June 10th for those respective cohorts. And as for us at the Foundation, we are leading an in-person mission this year. I did not get permission to disclose where, but probably next week I will be able to disclose that information and if you'll follow us on social media, you'll learn more about it and when applications open. So thank you very much. Thank you AWNOD to Apologize. Very exciting and intrigued by what the location will be. But I'm glad you were able to add some meaningful context around the issue of inclusive trade and the work of the Foundation and really tie it to some of those opportunities in those two markets. I just want to remind, I know we're running short on time, but I remind everyone that you can continue to send your questions in through the Q&A as we're just nearing the last piece of our webinar, which is some success stories from DC businesses who have been operating in Australia and to that end, we are fortunate to have Darshan Kailer, who is the CEO of Tradeable Bits, as well as Mary Clark, who is the founder and CEO of Agents of Discovery. They are here to talk about their experiences. And Darshan, I will maybe ask you to go first, followed by Mary. Darshan, thank you for being here. We're all very interested to hear about your experience with entering the Australian market. How did that come about and what was the process like for you? Maybe you can just talk about some of the challenges you encountered if there were and how you overcame them. Certainly. So hopefully you can hear me fine. I just want to make sure that that's fine. So yeah, so a little bit about Tradeable Bits so you can kind of understand why we want to expand in the region. So Tradeable Bits is a software company focused on providing software solutions for sports, music and entertainment. We focus on fan experience and everything else. So clients pretty well use the product in North America, kind of the US and Mexico. And we had an opportunity just to evaluate how we could potentially expand in English-speaking region and the time zone specifically was an easy transition to take a look at Australia and New Zealand. So when we started evaluating how we expand in the region, you know, we were fortunate enough that some folks within the groups that we were dealing with government organizations actually introduced us. So somebody from iRap introduced us to have actually had an export that then got us involved with some of the local representations in Australia. So within, you know, this was around 2019 when we were evaluating how to expand in the region and predominantly focusing on sports and music in the region. The main challenge that we had was one, you know, we didn't really know, you know, where and how the differentiation between whether we want to localize or extend the Canadian company into the region or create a subsidiary. So immediately we were trying to figure out legal ramifications of doing business within the region and we were able to get connected and introduced. So by the time we did fly and go to Sydney and Melbourne, the local representations through the connections with those entities that I talked about allowed us to meet with both accounts and legal teams to discuss, you know, how do we expand in the region. Now interestingly enough, you know, we eventually within two months time frame, we're able to incorporate open up on operations and do our first hire within, you know, February 2020. Now, you know, that's an interesting date because in March of 2020, as everybody knows, the pandemic hit. And you would think it would be the worst time to actually expand in the region. But for us, we were very lucky. We were able to close some pretty large contracts and allowed us to, you know, grow the team. So, you know, two years later, we, you know, we have an incorporation there, we have an accounting representation, you know, pay our proper taxes and so on, and have a team of now almost five soon five people in the region. So, so for us, you know, had we not been introduced to the right channels and so on, I think it would have taken us months, and probably a couple of flights back and forth and maybe even, you know, during the timing, probably will never open up an operations in the region. Now the biggest challenge for us, when we started to sell in the region before we decided to incorporate in the space, was really currency. So when we started to distribute our software in the region, everything that we were quoting, you know, had to be basically what's called international US dollars as a mechanism of currency. And what we found was, you know, it's very difficult for a local to eventually plan for currency exchanges and everything else. And we couldn't really, you know, offer up a revenue stream or currency in Australian dollars without potentially addressing how we handle taxes and everything else. So for us, you know, the best thing that we ever did was to make to make that leap. And at this point, that transition really allowed us to function like a local entity, you know, allowing us to export the software within the region and providing the services and the support and the growth of the team has been able to represent themselves as true Australian companies, because they are through an extension of the Trilobits Corporation here in Canada and based in Vancouver.  I think today is about 12% of our revenue is coming from Australia. Wow, thank you Darshan for sharing that experience. I'm not sure if you had joined already when Diane was speaking earlier about I don't think she said it was easy to do business in Australia and New Zealand, but she did mention that, you know, given the language similarities and some of the similarities in legal systems and governments and things like that, that maybe it would be easier there than other markets to get into. Was that, I mean, did you have that perception going into this? And I mean, it sounds like it happened very quickly, but do you think that that was a factor or not? Yeah, absolutely. And so when we started looking at Asia Pacific as a mechanism of going into those markets, there were other countries or let's say companies that were reaching to us in Asia Pacific, everything from South Korea, Japan, Philippines, and it was trying to manage that space was a bit of a, you know, let's call it a gauntlet of other issues, whether it be language, cultural, and so forth. But we knew we needed to have a representation within the region. And so for us, it just seemed like the right thing to do. You know, the culture is somewhat the same in Australia that it is in Canada, to an extent. Obviously, the rules and regulations, you know, it has its own tweaks and so on, but it is somewhat similar. So in the end, we were able to transition how we do business in the region. Now, had we not hired locally, I think, you know, probably wouldn't have been as successful, because you need that local representation that understands the local culture, how businesses are run is also important. You know, here when we're doing business in let's say the United States, and we consider that as an international business, we were originally trying to treat Australia as an international business. And the way we communicate and market in the region, we were treating it just like how we were doing it in the US, which is really incorrect.  And certainly in the music industry is a bit different. So within Asia Pacific, for example, in the music industry, it's very different than the Western world, even though it's still music. So little things like that to tweak your business ideologies and strategies really does require that local representation and treat that region differently, even though they speak the same language and so on. So there might seem similar, but in the end, our strategy and marketing initiative is very, very much tweaked very differently than, you know, the Western world. Interesting. Thank you very much, Darton, for sharing that. And I know you time out of another meeting to join us, so we really appreciate that. And given that we are getting, well, we're actually past our official end time, but I do want to pass it over to Mary now to speak about the experience of Agents of Discovery. And I think, Mary, you maybe have, did you have a couple of slides that you wanted to put up? Yeah. Great. Hi, everyone. I'm very time conscious and we're starting after the finish time, so we'll really try to make this short. And we do have a few slides prepared. And Dr. Krupa, Joel is going to join me, but we also are a SaaS company. And we were visiting Australia and New Zealand thanks to CanExport in 2018 and 19 and the same as what the previous speaker just mentioned. We were there in February 2020 about to close on some great sales. So you can see each of our missions that we call them has a different avatar. These are some of our fun tweaked Australian avatars. Next slide, please. And you can see we have experienced pretty significant success, particularly in Queensland and Sydney and the South Island of New Zealand with the platform to date. We are actually launching, so these are actual missions and customers. We are going to be launching our first Australia Explorer campaign where you get enough missions that communities can work together. This is basically Pokemon Go for Education. I don't really have time to explain it, but you can tell if it looks like fun, it really is. And Joel, I'm going to hand it over to you just to show a few pictures of our excursion there and talk a little bit about some of our lessons learned. Great. I'm sorry to interrupt, Joel. I just wanted to say, Mary and Joel, please don't feel too much pressure to cut your presentation. We do want to hear from you and if folks need to leave, we totally understand. And of course, this is all being recorded, so we can share that later. Okay, great. Well, keeping that in mind, I will speak slowly then. Yeah, so as Mary mentioned, we are an augmented reality focused organization that's interested in making a variety of different topics, especially STEM, but a range of different topics, a little bit more engaging than they might traditionally be. So with that in mind, we were interested in seeking out forward thinking, technology forward type countries that benefited from a lot of the things that have already been shared by other presenters here today. So we did, in fact, under a couple of CanExport sponsored trips head to both New Zealand and Australia. So yeah, this is our, we tried to make this maybe a little bit more visual than some of the other presentations. So this is our sort of landing spot here in New Zealand. Maybe next slide, please. And from there, we visited a range of different institutions and organizations. Nope, other way. One of our favorites was Te Puea, which is a Maori cultural center. We had a couple of wonderful tours there from an individual who was very keen on bringing our engagement tool to their site. In the end, unfortunately, we encountered some difficulties owing to COVID and shutdowns and such. But we're hoping to, in this sort of gradual reopening phase, re-engage with them. So we also headed to, if we could go to the next slide, there we go. We benefited, of course, from meeting several people in Auckland. Fabienne, who may be on the line, she's the local trade commissioner, was extremely helpful in coordinating a range of different meetings, not just in Auckland, but in the environs. And just had a great time working with her on setting up relevant meetings. So as I think other speakers have said, the TCS can be very helpful and is a great resource to leverage if you get the opportunity. Yeah, we headed to Hobbiton. We're hoping in the long run, similar to our Southeast Queensland Explorer campaign, to do similar things in both the Matamata area and various parts of New Zealand. So this is a stop we made a couple hours outside Auckland. And yeah, here's us at a zoo. So let's continue on to the next slide and talk a little bit more about Australia. So as I mentioned, we also went to Australia where we found the TCS service equally helpful in setting up targeted meetings that were really ultimately materialized in sales and in growing new markets in Australia. So we did go and close a sale at the Taronga Zoo, which is a kind of iconic zoo there in the Sydney Harbor area. Next slide, please. Let's keep going just in the interest of time. Yeah, keep going. And yeah, again, I'm conscious of time. So I'm guessing people would like to get off, but in terms of lessons learned, I think we'd probably echo again, a lot of the things that have already been said, local representation, if you can secure it is very helpful and can help you in both navigating the sales cycles that are unique to the area, as well as making you different contacts. For our organization, we maybe had a slightly more mixed experience than Darshan just shared. We did have some challenges during COVID with partnerships that were we thought going to go ahead, but in the end, didn't quite go ahead and ended up getting a bit derailed.  And yeah, just I feel like I'm at the risk of repeating a lot of things that have already been said. So we just echo and support a lot of the things that were shared by the speakers already. So, Mary, I don't know if you had anything else to add, but there's our contact information if anyone is interested in speaking after today's session. Yeah, I will say that some of the key things we found were that it was very important for us to have avatars and website and local phone numbers that worked in Australia and New Zealand. We were a little unprepared for that in our first trip, but quickly tweaked and found that was really, really important. And our strategy in Australia because we just closed yesterday with City of Logan and now it looks like Redlands going to close has been very focused on horizontal marketing. Just the success that Brisbane's been having has been helping us. We closed with Gold Coast has sort of been helping spread the word. So yeah, but I can just say that CanExport and Fabien and TCS was just absolutely fantastic. So thank you very much. Well, they're, excuse me, they are welcome to join in and comment, but I really appreciate that, Mary and Joel. I think those background and experience and practical tips are probably like goals for someone who may be considering, you know, entering the market. So we really appreciate that. Thank you for sharing and attending and taking time out of your busy schedules to do that. I think a lot of questions came in throughout the webinar, and I know many of them were answered already. If there are any outstanding questions, we can of course always connect after the webinar. As I said, the contact information for the presenters will be provided in the follow-up email. So you can always do it that way. I just wanted to just quickly make an opportunity for any of the speakers to make any comments or say anything before we start to sign off there. Okay. Well, as you can see, we are surrounded by a wealth of tools in our trade and investment toolkit. Insightful market intelligence to, you know, that's on the ground expertise, whether that's, you know, on the ground in these markets or back home here in British Columbia where we have a presence and representatives who can make the connections that you need. It's a collaborative effort and we're all here to support you. That is it for today's webinar. I'm sorry that we've gone over time, but some to appreciate the speakers presenting on a variety of topics. I hope the message is clear that we're all here to support you and navigate you, help you navigate through your trade journey, whether that's in Australia, New Zealand or another market. Please keep your eyes open for that follow-up email and thank you for joining us. Thanks to Minister Chao and all of the speakers for your contribution. Hope to hear from everybody soon. Talk to you. Thank you. Thank you.


Hi everyone welcome back to my channel and today we're gonna be playing a game which I'm really excited for. It's gonna be song association book title edition. I'm gonna have 10 seconds where Tom is gonna give me a book title and I have to think of a song with one of the words from the book title in it and I have 10 seconds. That's the stitch. Okay we've got 20 total I think I'll get at least like 12 is my goal because there's competing factors here. I don't listen to a lot of music anymore but I'm really good at remembering song lyrics. Sure Jan. Okay so time for round one let's see how we do okay. The seven husbands of Evan and Hugo.  Seven rings okay I should think of husband that's he has the tricky thing I was trying to think of something that had husband in it. Yeah okay. Supernova. Uh um I got that super bass boom boom boom boom bass you got that super bass boom boom boom boom boom I got one. I was thinking of champagne supernova. Oh champagne supernova yeah okay I knew that there was a song with supernova in it but I couldn't think of what it was so then I went with super. I know it's technically one word on there but like it's fine. Shine. Um uh shine shine shine shine for that.  I'm gonna let it shine is that one? Yeah I think that's a take that song. Let it shine let it shine. It does. I don't think it does. Okay I didn't get it so. Turn of the key. Uh turn is that how it goes? Turn every now and then I fall apart. I was thinking return of the mech. Oh return okay yeah by the way I'm not the worst singer in the world but I'm not trying to sing well in this okay. I don't want everyone to think I can. Like a sister. Like a virgin. That's what I was thinking about. Only human. Are we human or are we dancers? My sign is vital. Okay that's good that's good. That was a good word. I was thinking uh shiver. Um wait I get the shivers. Ed Sheeran shivers. I can't remember how it goes. Very good very good.  My heart's going pitterpatter pitterpatter.  Everything we didn't say. There's too many words. Um everything now I need it. Everything now I want it. Everything now. Is that how it goes? Yeah that was the Italy song. I think that's right. Okay I can't think of one.  That's hard. What's grown? Can't think of anything. Grown. Grown. Grown. Can't think what song is it? I was thinking of Nirvana in Bloom. Oh that's famous. That's famous. I want to see the death sentence. But when do I listen to any Nirvana? That was unfair. That was one that you knew you could get. You're like oh no it's quite difficult looking at this wall. Validate me.  Being deadly serious. Something about the book title. Where? Oh Dangerous Women. Oh yeah. But it's fine I got Dangerous. Dangerous. I just imagine you assume the song and you just forgot about the book title. Before the coffee gets cold. Before. Before. Like I did before the storm. I got that. I got it. I don't care it was the time just slightly over. I got it. I'm giving myself a point. Like oh that song. The song however I agree the best maybe the best song in the entire world. I'm trying to think of songs and I've just got night changes by one direction stuck in my head every time you give me a title. I'm like I don't know why but it's just stuck in my head and I can't sift past it. Heartless. How could you be so heartless? Could you be so heartless? That's what isn't it? I don't know. Is that Kanye West? He'd be so heartless. Yeah. Doing so well. The last time I lied. Love the way you lie. The weight of the stars. Time once and I'm like just how fast the night changes. I'm like it's in there somewhere. Never saw me coming.  Never gonna let you down. Never gonna turn around in a desert. Plan succeeded. Good job to you. Thank you. It is because you have to sift through like do I go with never saw coming? Like which one do I go with? It's hard. The savage instinct. Savage. Wow surely she is though. Becky is that's not a song is it? Becky is savage. No she says you could better call Becky with the good hair. I think you just say Becky is a savage. No she says better call Becky with the good hair. A savage. There is a song with savage. Savage. That's so hard. Savage and instinct. That's right. One by one. One kisses all it takes falling in love with me. Possibility. By the way from England you better watch the heroes final of the weekend. How many have you got left? This is my last one. Last one? I can go and find some more and come back. No. 20. Ready? Family of liars. We are family. I got all my sisters and me. I think I got 13. I said I get at least 12. Savage something ratchet. Oh I'm a savage. Yeah I should have got that. That's final than Megan as well. Megan solidarity. I'm happy with 13 because I think they're really hard. I think it's harder than getting the one word. I think it is harder. Well I hope you enjoyed the video doing song association with us. I think I did okay considering Tom picked some mean ones but also it is hard because when you get like all the light we cannot see. Do you go with see? Do you go with light? Do you go with all? Like yeah mine doesn't have long enough to figure it out but I hope you enjoyed playing this game with us. It was a lot of fun. Let me know if you'd like to see this again. Make sure you subscribe if you haven't already and if you've gotten to the end comment a musical note emoji in the comments down below. I'll see you soon. Bye.


Hi, I'm Chris Thompson from Investor Intel and today I'm with Alex Klemann, who is the CEO of Leacore Gold on the CSE with the ticker LECR. How are you today, Alex? Great, Chris. Thanks for having me. Well, Leacore is in one of the hottest areas of mining exploration these days, which is Newfoundland and Labrador. You're on the island in Newfoundland and you've actually hit your horse to a really well-known geologist, Sean Ryan, and seemed to have three very interesting projects. And you had a recent news release about some results you've done on one of your projects called the Western Exploits. Maybe you can just start off with that one for the investors. Certainly. We have, as you mentioned, three different project grounds of Bay Verde in the east, the Western Exploits, which is a central, north-central Newfoundland, and we've got towards Gander Zone. We've got the Star Trek property. Western Exploits is one of the largest, if not the largest land package held by a public company in Newfoundland. It's over 140,000 hectares. And Sean Ryan, as you mentioned, is a well-known prospector, had a lot of success in the Yukon as turns its attention over the last four or five years to Newfoundland. We're utilizing this soil grid methodology, which is really a great start to what is essentially virgin ground. And that's what's wonderful about Newfoundland. It hasn't been a pin cushioned to death and we're in a great situation where they're thanks to companies like Newfound Gold, showing the rest of us that there's lots of discovery to be made. So we're happy where we are and we're being methodical in how we get there. And I think your Bay Verde project is your most advanced one right now. What have you done there recently? Yeah. No, Bay Verde has been pieced together. It's about 2,000 hectares. It's got lots of known gold showings. Basically, Newfoundland was prospected and run by Noranda back in the 90s and in the 80s. And so we're in a situation here where Bay Verde has had some piecemeal exploration over a long period of time. And we pieced together a nice land package there, lots of showings. We're hoping to get some drills in the ground later in the year. Whereas in Western exploits, we still have a lot of grid work to do to get to those drill targets. Now, it appears that you take a very methodology of a very systematic way of exploring the area. Maybe you can just go over that with some investors when they're looking for drill results right away. Maybe you can just go over how you guys do your exploration by plans. Right. Well, perfect example is Bay Verde where we've done soil work. There's been a lot of historical work. So that's a little quicker for us to get drills in the ground. Whereas Western exploits really had no one's ever done any work on the ground.  I mean, we're throwing out the net so wide. It's going to take some time. But when you look at Newfoundland and you study the geology and the history of mineralization through a lot of the zones in Newfoundland, you realize that this ground is just never going to work. So we're lucky. We know there's gold there, how much, where it is. This is what the soil grid programs do for us. They give us the best drill targets. And then we'll go in and drill. So drilling it at Western exploits sometime in the next 12 to 18 months. Same thing with Star Trek, probably a little quicker at Star Trek, but certainly much quicker at our Bay Verde package. And how does the bank account these days? Excellent. We raised 11 million last year. We've got about eight and a half in the bank. We've got a real strong relationship with our investors. And one thing, if you look into it, I mean, what are we, an 18 million market cap at eight million cash, eight and a half million cash, a pretty good situation to be in. Yeah, I think you have a very tight capital, only a little over 50 million shares outstanding. And for a company for a less than $20 million market cap with $8 million in cash, that's a fairly good value for the investor. Over the next, say year, I guess, or the summer program, what are you going to be doing on the projects and what can investors look forward to seeing? Yeah. Well, we'd love to get into drilling the Bay Verde package. We know there's some high-grade gold systems running through there and some copper numbers as well on the northern side of that Bay Verde package. So we'll probably do a RAV drill program in the next 90 to 120 days. So by Q2, Q3. And then we'll follow up with the Diamond program in the fall. All the while we're continuing to run our soil grids over massive pieces of ground in that Western exploits area. And do you have any plans to do things like some geophysics, like some IPs work as well? Yeah. And once we get the soil work done and completed, which is quite an undertaking at Western exploits, the next phase of exploration will include. One of the things we really like is getting these what they call geoprobes done. Geoprobe is a system that Sean Ryan used to create success in the Yukon. These little mobile drill units are percussive. They're non-disruptive. And you can get real-time deeper results than you could obviously from grid work, soil grid work. But that will probably be following up the soil work with these geoprobes. And then we'll go on to the next phases, which we've got regional geochemistry and geophysical work done by the Newfoundland government. That really helps. But in terms of actual on the ground work and prospecting, it's never been done on this ground. So we've got to get down, get our feet dirty and do the on-ground work and reconnaissance. That'll all follow over the next year. Well, it seems like a very exciting what's happening on your projects. I did a lot of work, as I mentioned earlier, on an Atlantic Gold Report. So covered off the area. It's a very active area right now, lots of investment in it. And you seem to have three very good projects that are worth the investigation. So we look forward to following the story. And maybe we can speak again in a couple of months after you've had some more results so we can update the investors. We'd love to and appreciate you making the introduction for Lea Cora to your audience. And we'll be definitely back to keep everybody updated on the work we're doing. There's a lot going on and it's exciting. It's time to be in Newfoundland.