Hi everyone, my name is Ben Kaliznik and I'm a senior manager in British Columbia's trade policy and negotiations branch with the Ministry of Jobs, Economic Recovery and Innovation. Good evening to everyone in British Columbia, and good morning to those of us who are joining from Vietnam. Welcome and thank you for taking time out of your very busy days to join us for a webinar on doing business in Vietnam under the comprehensive and progressive agreement for trans specific partnership, the CPTPP. Before I go any further, I would like to acknowledge that I am conducting this webinar from the traditional territories of the Lekwungen speaking peoples, the Esquimalt and Songhees First Nations. We have a very packed agenda today. I think, following some opening and introductory remarks from a few honored guests, you're going to hear from a panel of trade specialists and businesses with some experience in Vietnam, and also throughout the region. And that will be followed by a Q&A session where you can pose some questions to the panel. This event has been designed as a very high level introduction to Vietnam and the CPTPP. So you may feel at times that you may be thirsty for some more information on a certain topic that we just can't cover in detail over the short period of time that we have. But fear not, we do have a plan to follow up with some additional material and resources, including our contact information in a follow up email that will coming to you in the coming days. And I will also mention that BC has some plans to deliver additional market and sector specific CPTPP events in the coming months, in addition to our regular free trade agreement promotion sessions. Before I turn things over, I just want to go over quickly a few housekeeping issues. The session is being recorded, and a recording will be provided to you afterwards. Presentations will be made available where possible in a post event email for myself. And if you experience any technical issues, please just send a message using the chat function at the bottom of your screen. And you can direct that to Ghana draws or to myself. Please use the Q&A function to pose any questions throughout the session to all of the panelists. You can pose these questions at any time during the event, but we will not be responding them until the Q&A portion. Please be as specific as you can and indicate where you can, who you are directing the question to. Now I would like to introduce our first speaker. The Honourable George Howe was elected MLA for Vancouver Fairview in 2017. Prior to that, he served two terms on Vancouver City Council from 2005 to 2011. He graduated from UBC in mechanical engineering in 1975 and went on to have a 30 year career with BC Hydro. And he is BC's Minister of State for Trade. We often play a welcoming video from the Minister before events like today, but today we're very fortunate to have him joining live. So thank you Minister for joining us. The mic is yours. Thank you Ben and good day everyone in British Columbia as well as those joining us in Vietnam. And I'm pleased to speak to you from Vancouver, where I am on the traditional territory of the Coast Salish peoples, with whom we share this land and the hospitality. I bring greetings on my premier, John Horgan, and I also like to extend a special welcome to Council General of Vietnam in Vancouver. Council General Yuan Kuan Chong, who took up his new role in British Columbia last summer. I look forward to the opportunity to meet Council General in person, and BC is committed to strengthening economic ties with Vietnam. And thank you for joining us Council General. Thank you Minister. And I would like to also acknowledge the incredible work that the business community, including the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, what they're doing during this extremely challenging time. And it's great to see you again Stuart. And I look forward to your remark and to meet you in person again soon, like we did countless occasion in the past.  And it's nice to know we have found ways to continue to meet to do our work, despite the pandemic. Although the busy business community has faced countless challenges during this pandemic, while keeping and protecting the health and safety of the workers and the communities where the businesses are operating. And as you all know, to succeed in today's changing global economy, we need to be responsive to changing market conditions. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic hit Canada, international trade was already changing in many ways. And increased protectionism and changing market cycles made us realize that trade diversification is more critical than ever. Businesses that export are more resilient as they have a diversified customer base that's not as impacted by seasonal or local economic shifts. So part of my mandate as Ministers State for Trade is to develop and implement a new trade diversification strategy to pull more British Columbia as a leading supplier of low carbon goods and services. And I like to talk a bit about the CPTPP and their benefits. So I was very happy to be the Ministers State of Trade when we held an event in Canada Place to welcome the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, what I just said, the CPTPP. And that was in early 2019. And that was a few months after Canada ratified the agreement. As Canada is a Pacific province, British Columbia's strategic location means it stands to gain from increased trade between Canada and the Pacific Rim markets. Southeast Asia is an area of interest for our province and Vietnam is a dynamic part of the region and an increasingly important trade partner for British Columbia. Expanding trade with Vietnam, rapidly expanding in industrializing economy, it's a priority for us in British Columbia. Vietnam was the 10th largest destination for BC export in 2019. Although this was down to 19th place in 2010, of course we know that 2020, sorry, it was not 2010, 2020. We know 2020 was not a normal year for BC and the world, as well as the global economy. With the CPTPP in place, and once our economy we cover from the pandemic, we expect to see growth. And the Minister Calon and I are working hard on that in order to have a robust recovery as we go forward. So BC's exporter of forced products, agri-foods, mineral, fuels and oil, and other goods are already funding success in Vietnam. And I remember, before the pandemic, we were in Koma, which is a place on Vancouver Island, very beautiful place, and we have the Seafood Festival, and we already had a few buyers from Vietnam who are visiting us. So those things we could resume once the pandemic is under control. So anyways, I think this agreement give us a lot of opportunities for BC businesses across multiple sector to expand to Vietnam. And most importantly, it provides rules for fair and transparent trade. We recognize the incredible potential trade and investment, helping BC diversify and recover economically. This includes creating good paying jobs for indigenous people, women and other groups that have been overly affected by the pandemic. And we do have a trade support network in British Columbia. Our government, the Ministry of Jobs, Economic Recovery and Innovation is responsible for this network. So trade and investment diversification have an important role to play in economic development and recovery. Throughout the pandemic, our trade and investment teams have continued to develop opportunity, facilitate virtual business to business meeting, and stay connected to key contacts in all the markets. Our provincial trade and investment network stretches from British Columbia to Asia to Europe and to the United States. Trade and investment offices provide a range of services for exporters. They engage with existing and potential customers, provide market intelligence and represent British Columbia's export goods and meetings and events overseas. Their job as TIL, trade and investment representative, it's to accelerate opportunity for BC exporters, including BC tree fruit co-ops, for example, export of and brochure apples to Vietnam. And a Q-verse water purification system into the Philippines and Vietnam, which, and you will hear more about during the panel session. BC currently serve Vietnam related business inquiry through the BC training investment representative in Singapore, who work closely with our federal counterparts through the trade commissioner service. And as our trade relationship advances, we will definitely embark on having some representation in Vietnam. So that's very important to us. Today, we also have reps from our provincial trade team who are online here, listening to your opinions and your suggestion, and you're welcome to contact our office any time. And this will ensure you understand the market opportunity created by the CPTPP. So the webinar is put on in order to let everyone know about this trade agreement and the opportunity that's offered in this particular trade agreement, particularly Vietnam. I think this is a great exciting potential for us. So CPTPP will improve the competitiveness of BC business like yours in Vietnam and other countries. I hope you will consider Vietnam in your international business plan. And I hope today's webinar will provide the information and inspiration you need to start exploring the opportunities this trade agreement offers. We started last year with a strong economic foundation and then the COVID-19 pandemic struck and why the pandemic has created challenges for trade in all markets around the world. It has not changed our strong fundamentals, supporting the trade and investment effort of BC businesses. It's a priority for our government. And we work to work a sustainable, inclusive and innovative economic recovery here at home.  And thank you for listening. Thank you. Thank you, Minister Chao. You've given our attendees a lot to consider. And we appreciate you taking the time to join us today. Thank you. Now I would like to introduce our next speaker. Mr. Quynh Quang Trung is Consul General of Vietnam in Vancouver. He is fairly new to his posting but has had a long and impressive diplomatic career under his belt. And we're very appreciative that he is able to join us today to provide his welcome to attendees. So over to you, Mr. Consul General. Thank you for the introduction. The Honorable George Chao, BC Minister of State for Trade, ladies and gentlemen. Before I would like to thank the government of BC and Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada for inviting me to attend this significant event and allowing me to have some welcoming remarks before this distinguished audience, among whom many I believe will be potential investors and close friends of Vietnam. Finally, I had the honor to have a meeting with three BC ministers in charge of economic affairs. The Honorable George Chao, the Honorable Ravi Callan, the Honorable Bruce Runston, and especially the meeting with the Honorable John Horgan, Premier of BC, to discuss ways aimed at promoting comprehensive relations between Vietnam and BC. And I would like to thank the Minister, George Chao, for his fine words about Vietnam and relations between Vietnam and BC. In 2023, Vietnam and Canada and BC will celebrate half a century of our diplomatic relation, which has developed rapidly and reached the level of comprehensive partnership. Against that finally existing political relation background, our economic trade and investment relations have also seen rapid developments, as Minister George Chao mentioned. Let's take the last year 2020. Minister also mentioned that we were heavily affected by the pandemic. But even though faced with this difficulty, the two-way trade volume between Vietnam and BC has still reached two billion Canadian dollars. Of course, it's not like in 2019. However, in our opinion, these achievements still haven't been compatible with our potential. There exist opportunities for our businesses to cooperate on food, aquaculture, agri-tech, food products, energy, labour, education, tourism, etc. I would like to stress that, due to the level of development and concrete condition from both sides, our economic relation is a complementary nature, not competitive. The CPTPP has brought in new opportunities for our businesses compared with non CPTPP countries. And I believe that the webinar today will help clarify and provide the BC businesses with useful information relating CPTPP benefit while doing business in Vietnam. In BC 2021 budget, we saw a lot of efforts by the BC government to support people, businesses, and to build a strong recovery for everyone. The Vietnam-BC economic relation, if fully maximized, could play part in this endeavor for our mutual benefits and for our stronger relationship in the years to come. I note with pleasure that today, together with the government of BC, many other Canadian organizations join and speak objectively to Canadian businesses about doing business in Vietnam. And among participants today, there are some Canadian businesses of Vietnamese descent, whom we believe that while doing business in their native land can work as a bridge between BC and Vietnam businesses. We want you all to start doing business in Vietnam with confidence and success. In the end, your success is our success. With the hardworking human resource of 96 million people with stable political environment, high economic growth, open trade investment policy, competitive production cost, improved infrastructure, Vietnam is eager for further development. On behalf of the government and people of Vietnam, I would like to welcome you to Vietnam to do business successfully and to understand more about our country and people. The Consulate General of Vietnam in Vancouver is ready to provide you necessary information when requested. Finally, I would like to wish the honorable Josh Joe and all of you present here today. The best of health, happiness and success. Thank you. Thank you, Consulate General. Yeah. Yeah, thank you. Thank you very much, Consul General. We certainly hope to be able to contribute to better fulfilling the economic partnership and potentially you mentioned through sessions like this. Thank you for joining us today. Good evening. Thank you. Our last introductory speaker today is Stuart Beck, President and CEO of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada. Prior to joining APF Canada, Mr Beck served as the Canadian High Commissioner to the Republic of India with concurrent accreditation to the Kingdom of town and Nepal. He joined Canada's then named Department of External Affairs and International Trade, now known as Global Affairs Canada in 1982 and served in served abroad in numerous posts. He also held various senior positions while serving in Ottawa. He was Consul General in Shanghai and San Francisco. The virtual floors is yours Stuart. Thank you very much for joining us today. Thank you very much, Ben, and thank you, Minister and Consul General. Consul General, we haven't had a chance to meet yet, but I'm looking forward to that occasion and Minister, it's been a long time and my hope is that we can, we can meet again soon and have some very good conversations about the importance of Asia. Next slide please. What I'd like to do is talk a little bit about the historical relationship that we've had in the first slide and one of the things that Ben didn't mention is during my career as in Ottawa, I was deputy director for Taiwan, Korea and Indochina. And during my time in that job, I had the pleasure of not only opening our trade office in Ho Chi Minh City in 1994, which then became the Consulate in 1973, I also was involved in opening our embassy in Hanoi. And although we opened the embassy in 1973, we moved to a different location in a beautiful, actually a very beautiful location, and a very historic place right across the street from Ho Chi Minh, Mausoleum. And so we, again, it shows, I'd say it's a privileged relationship that Canada has with Vietnam. So this year in fact marks 48 years of bilateral relations and over the years Canada and Vietnam has strengthened their economic partnerships through such organization as ASEAN, APEC, the WTO, and the reason that we're here today, the CPTPP. But beyond trade and economic ties, our two countries share a rich and storied history. Canada welcomed two ways of immigration in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, first middle class professionals following the fall, following the fall of Saigon in 1975, and then later refugees from the south at the beginning of the 1980s.  Next slide, please. Student recruitment, I think this is really something that's quite important because as a former trade commissioner and somebody who has spent 32 years in the Foreign Service, people of people ties are really very important in building relationships. Students not only contribute to our economy and our knowledge base, but on returning home, they act as informal ambassadors for our country. So prior to the pandemic, the number of student permits issued each year for Vietnamese students was on an uptick. And as of the end of 2018, there were roughly 21,000 Vietnamese studying at all levels in Canada. This plays Vietnam fifth among sending countries behind India, China, South Korea, and France. So ASEAN as a whole, and then Vietnam as part of ASEAN, it's really growing in importance globally. So Vietnam is one of the world's fastest growing economies and has been Canada's largest trading partner in the ASEAN region since 2015. PWC, Paris Waterhouse Coopers predicts that by 2050 Vietnam will have the world's highest annual GDP growth, averaging 8.8% each year through to 2050. Among ASEAN members in 2016 Vietnam was ranked fifth in terms of global GDP. That ranking is projected to increase to second by 2050. Further, Vietnam is one of the few ASEAN countries to emerge from 2020 with an increase in GDP. So Vietnam's burgeoning digital economy is the envy of the region, if not the world. In 2019, Vietnam's e-commerce market was valued at $5 billion, an increase of 81% over 2015. Also in 2019 Vietnam's top exports were all related to the tech sector, with broadcasting equipment, telephones, integrated circuits taking the top three spots. As the economy continues to digitize and e-commerce becomes available for largest swaths of the population, the market obviously will continue to grow. It's expected to be valued at $23 billion by 2025. Slide, the next slide please. So if we take a look at Canada-Vietnam trade, now as we know the main benefit of the TPP is preferential market access to new FTA partner countries, which occurs through tariff elimination and reduction. But there are also some very interesting benefits associated with services, IP and other areas. It's quite a comprehensive agreement. Canada expects to see a large increase in exports to see CP TPP parties with the most gains coming from Japan, Australia, Malaysia and from Vietnam. The CP TPP entered into force for Vietnam on January 14, 2019. The first and second tariff cuts took place on the same day. The second round was considered a catch up. Vietnam's third cut, tariff cut took place on January 1, 2020, and it will continue to reduce tariffs on January 1 for the next 21 years. You can see here in the graph what it would look like for Vietnam's CP TPP partners across a number of product types, although the slide's quite small, which dramatic drops in the coming years ultimately to zero. For example, prepared fruits and vegetables will go from just under 30% this year to 12% in five years and zero in 2030. For poultry from just under 40% this year to 12% in five years and 0% by 2030. And beer, you know, for those of us who like it, from just over 30% this year to 15% in five years and zero in 2028. Historically, Canada's exports to Vietnam have been in agricultural products, fish and seafood and metals and minerals, as you can see in the graph graphic on the right. But as global affairs Canada has detailed in its Vietnam partner profile, there are also opportunities for Canadian companies exporting to Vietnam in the education, ICT infrastructure and clean technology sectors, especially with CP TPP tariff reduction. So, no question opportunity knocks. So the next slide please. SMEs represent about 99% of Canadian businesses, but only 11% of SMEs in Canada have exported abroad. So, we continue to be disproportionately affected by tariffs and tariff and trade barriers compared to large and state owned enterprises which can more easily absorb the cost of navigating compliance customs, and the administrative costs associated with international trade. So once the CP TPP is implemented, terrorists will be eliminated on 99% of current Canadian exports the CP TPP countries for our SMEs this is a big game changer. The CP TPP has already had an impact on Canadian business importing from and exporting to Vietnam. Since the CP TPP's entry into force in 2019 2020, there are 29 additional Canadian businesses exporting to Vietnam and 320 importing from importing from Vietnam. So we have a lot of work to do, but at least we're moving in the right direction. APF Canada has been involved in several initiatives to support exports from Canadian and Vietnamese SMEs. Our co water project provides a guidebook and workshops for the government of Vietnam and Vietnamese SMEs looking to take advantage of the benefits of the CP TPP. Our APAC Canada growing business partnership is designed to increase global market access for SMEs in the APAC region, and our virtual women's business missions promote connections between women entrepreneurs on both sides of the Pacific. Next slide please. Finally, I just like to share some data from our investment monitor project that tracks two way and trade investment between Canada and the economies of the Asia Pacific. Looking at Canada's outbound investment to Vietnam. Canada's investment in Vietnam has been consistent since 2003, except for 2006 to 2008 spike due to a big deal in 2008 involving Toronto based Asian coast development limited the luxury resort developer invested 5 billion in the construction of a luxury hotel in the tourist area, the Ho Tram strip. Over the past six years, both the amount invested and the number of deals for Canadian firms investing in Vietnam has decreased, but Vietnam's growing economy and booming tech sector will offer many opportunities for investment in the coming years. And we already tracking movement in the space. As you can see here Canada invested 15 million in Vietnam's tech sector between 2003 and 2020. A figure we expect to increase as Canadian investors look to Vietnam and its growing digital sector. Vietnam has one of the fastest growing digital economies in Asia, and the Vietnamese government projects will make up 30% of Vietnamese GDP by 2030. This is largely due to the country's booming e-commerce sector, which is expected to hit 33 billion by 2025. As the CPTPP significantly reduced risk by creating a set of rules for investment, it's likely to spark many investment opportunities for Canadian companies in Vietnam. These are really our opportunities to seize. And as we all understand, there will be a need to diversify our global supply chains. And from my own past experience with Vietnam, it's a very attractive place to be looking at investments. So next slide please. So I hope I've set the scene for you and I'd just like to thank the organizers for allowing us to participate in this and Ben back to you. Thank you. Thank you very much, Stuart. Thank you for your insightful remarks and for indeed setting the stage for our conversation. I know you have to run to another important event, so we won't keep you any longer. Thank you very much for joining us. Next I'm going to turn it over to our moderator for the panel discussion. In his current role as executive director for the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam, Ryan Leonard drives chamber growth by leveraging high potential collaborations, engaging with Canadian and Vietnamese stakeholders and seeking out new opportunities for the membership. He is involved in numerous initiatives, both within and outside of Ken Chan Vietnam, but I'll stop talking so that he can tell you a little more about himself and what he's doing. And thank you very much for being our moderator today, Ryan, the Overture. Thanks Ben and I'm happy to be here. Thanks to all of our honored guest speakers for their insights into the Vietnamese market and the opportunities for DC companies here in Vietnam. And more than that, thank you to everybody who's joining today and considering the Vietnamese market or opportunities between BC and Vietnam. As someone who has lived here for five years and works through the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, I can tell you the opportunities are here. And I really hope that you'll strongly consider, you know, taking me taking this step to make it here. About the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, we are a non government nonprofit business association that strives to build opportunities for Canadian companies here in Vietnam, but also for Vietnamese companies that are interested in the Canadian market. So we do that in large part by raising awareness of those opportunities, creating educational materials, putting information out about how to leverage those opportunities, and to connect companies between the two countries. More than anything, we're a support system here on the ground alongside the Trade Commission Service. And for that, we do a variety of different things. We have our business services section, which is B2B referrals, we host trade missions, trade delegations, most recently a virtual trade mission. We put together webinars, host events, that sort of thing, all while also doing our regular member supports through marketing, advertising, introductions, that sort of thing. So I'll keep it short because we have a lot of speakers today. When it comes to the Chamber, more than anything that I want you to take away is that we are here. There is Canadian support in the market for companies that are interested in understanding more about the opportunities and want to know how to realize those opportunities. So with that being said, I hope that some of you choose to take the step to enter the Vietnamese market in some capacity. And for those of you who do know that the Canadian Chamber of Commerce is here to help. So with that being said, I'm now going to introduce our panelists. We have Jeanine Fidler, Senior Trade Commissioner of the Embassy of Canada in Vietnam. We have Christian Halle, Senior Trade Commissioner at the Consulate General of Canada in Vietnam. Heather McDermott, Trade Commissioner at Global Affairs Canada. Ben Kaliznik, Senior Manager, Ministry of Jobs, Economic Recovery and Innovation at the Government of British Columbia. Chris B. Paraja, Senior Account Manager of BC at Export Development Canada. Peter Ardema, Director of Sales and Marketing at BC Tree Fruits Cooperative. And Sanjay Kumar, Director of Product Management at Acuba Technologies. So without any further ado and speaking of support system here on the ground, I would like to invite Jeanine, Christian and Heather to give their presentation and to kickstart our presentations and the information we're receiving today. So welcome. Thanks, Ryan. I think I want to start out today actually. Thanks for the introduction and pleasure to be here today. My name is Heather McDermott. I'm a trade commissioner working out of the Vancouver Regional Office for the trade commissioner service.  And it just goes to show the great collaboration that we do to work together to make sure that we're starting meetings in other markets. So I have the pleasure of introducing or maybe reintroducing the trade commissioner service for you today. So who are we the trade commissioner service is a division under the Department of Global Affairs Canada. Our mandate is to help Canadian companies access and grow opportunities in international markets. We help companies grow globally through export sales for an investment and other types of international commercial activity. We help businesses navigate market changes. We heard earlier, Minister Chaus, talk about, you know, resilience and the shifts that are happening now and and that's definitely something that we are helping Canadians with. And we do this really through three pillars of offerings. We have our network. We have our funding and we have business support. So I'm really just going to give you a brief overview of what this is. Please feel free after this, this session to reach out to any of the panelists today to get contact information and we can do more about this. But let's get into our network. The trade commissioner service network we have we are in 161 cities worldwide. And within each of those offices we have trade commissioners like myself that are focused on different sectors. I focus on the life sciences sector here in Vancouver. We work closely with our colleagues from DC government and we're co located in many offices as well. And what trade commissioners do we provide key market insights and practical business advice. We help open the door to new business opportunities. We can help you make qualified business contacts. We resolve complex business problems. We organize trade missions and business delegations for key trade events or business groups. So previous to COVID we would also be by your side when we had industry trade events in markets, whether in Canada or abroad with our TCS booths or Canada pavilions. But as many others have we've shifted to this virtual environment which I think has been really effective. So that's our network. The next sort of pillar is our funding. We have our main funding program is called can export and under the can export funding we have three programs we have the SMEs for small and medium enterprises. We have the innovation funding program which is really for startups and then we have the associations which is for larger groups within Canada supply for funding. I'm going to talk about the SMEs, the small and medium enterprises and the innovation. Our programs are there to help companies pursue international markets pursue export opportunities or perhaps formalize that R&D partnership that you've been working towards with your foreign partners. Funding for companies is available up to $100,000 per year and it's reimbursed at a 75 to 25% reimbursement scheme. We reimburse at 75%. The company is responsible for the other 25%. A typical projects are funded between $15,000 and $75,000. A lot of opportunity there. We encourage people to apply for the program and we encourage you to reach out to us to ask us the best strategy for when applying for that and to look into market. And then once applying we connect you with our colleagues abroad to let them know that you are looking to work in that market and you've asked for funding for that. So that's our funding pillar. And our last sort of pillar is our business supports. We have a lot of different business supports and programs and initiatives that we offer Canadian clients. This ranges from our technology accelerator. I mentioned trade missions and business delegations. And one of our other business supports is to support diversity in the ownership of companies that are exporting. This is proud to celebrate Canada's rich diversity of exporters and we've provided dedicated support for export ready export active business owners that are owned businesses that are owned by women, Indigenous peoples, visible minorities and members of the LGBTQ2 community, as well as other groups that are traditionally underrepresented in international trade like youth. So we have targeted events for this support and business development delegations to help exporters in inclusive trade groups to better access the right interlocutors or increase their chances of making that road connection. And so, you know, it kind of brings me back to the beginning. Those are our three pillars of what the PCS offers clients, but it really brings us back to that making a connection and bringing us back to our network. I would like to say that our strength is in our network, whether that's working with trade commissioners abroad, or our partners that you see here today. I think you'll start to see the theme thread together that it really is a collaborative approach to be helping, helping you with your business. So I'm going to hand it over to my colleagues like I said that was very brief, please reach out to me. If you if you need anything else you have questions. I'm going to hand it over to Christian and Jeanine, and they're going to talk to you about what they're doing in their region. Thanks Heather. Thanks Ryan. So good morning good evening everyone thank you for participating today it's a pleasure to speak with companies and partners who are interested in the Vietnamese market. I'm from the province of BC for organizing this event I'm very happy to be presenting alongside my colleagues from global affairs Canada at the RO and the Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City. So, I think what we've heard from other speakers so far is that Vietnam is very connected within the global economy. So this is an advantage for Canada as it relates to the CPTPP. Vietnam has made us more in line and competitive with our traditional competitors in Asia, such as Australia and New Zealand who have a long standing trade relationship already with Vietnam. We're also more competitive at this point in many areas than the United States who has no trade agreements at all at this point with Vietnam. However, the recently entered into force EVFPA as well as the recently concluded our step has created further competition in the market. So the trade commissioner service has two offices in Vietnam. This is our team at the Embassy of Canada in Hanoi, and Hanoi is considered the cultural and political center of Vietnam and it's the second largest city in the country so our commercial team is slightly smaller than the Consulate General, and we focus on trade policy market access issues, including any issues related to CPTPP implementation, in addition to advancing Canadian commercial interests in specific sectors. The trade commissioner service in Hanoi is made up of a team of six, and we're covering, as mentioned trade policy market access issues, as well as the sectors of aerospace, agri-food, fish and seafood, education, ICT, specifically for our team in telecommunications and cybersecurity and defense and security. So these are the sectors that we have identified as having the greatest opportunity for Canadian companies, and we work quite closely with the Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City as well as the other trade commissioner service teams and other missions within the ASEAN region. If you have any sector specific questions for Vietnam, I'll be very happy to refer you to the trade commissioner responsible if I'm not able to answer during this presentation, but regardless, I'd love to make that introduction to you for you anyway. So I'd like to take a little bit of time to speak about aerospace, agri-food and ICT in particular. So as we all know, aviation is one of the hardest hit sectors globally. However, pre-pandemic Vietnam was the seventh fastest growing aviation market in the world. The growth in passenger traffic and emergence of low cost carriers, spurred demand for new aircraft, aviation training and MRO services. So what we're seeing at the embassy throughout the pandemic is that there still is a demand for aviation training as well as MRO services. So while we're working on the sector as a whole, we certainly have a focus on those two specific subsectors. Vietnam still considers aviation a backbone to promote their economic growth and they still aim to have an aviation industry as advanced as advanced as other countries in the region and in the world by 2030. Vietnam was the second largest destination for Canadian agri-food and seafood exports in ASEAN in 2020. This sector remained more or less stable throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and overall agri-food and seafood account for more than half of all Canadian exports to Vietnam. The consumer market is made up of approximately 97 million people with a growing middle class and a young Vietnamese population who have a growing appetite for Western food products. We have an excellent reputation for food safety and quality in the market and thanks to the CPTPP, import tariffs on many Canadian products have been eliminated or will be eliminated in the coming years. However, despite the potential, Vietnam's market continues to present considerable challenges for Canadian companies from both regulatory and market access barriers and market competition perspectives. So if you have any questions regarding some of those challenges, certainly reach out to our office. And this is a sector that we cover in both Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. So please feel free to reach out to the trick mission or service if you have any questions related to those challenges. As far as ICT, Vietnam is the third most populous country in ASEAN with 97 million people. On behalf of who are under the age of 30, they have an increasing disposable income and their tech savvy. It is among only a few countries who had a positive growth GDP growth in 2020 with 2.9% and a projected growth rate of 6.5% in 2021. In Vietnam's Ministry of Information and Communications, their 2020 report, 70.5% of the Vietnamese population are internet users, and almost 70% of the total mobile subscribers are using smartphones. In 2020, Vietnam's ICT revenue sector revenues reached 120.6 billion US dollars, which is an increase of 11.7% from the year prior. Thank you for your attention. I look forward to answering any questions, making any introductions, and I'll pass the floor over to Christian. Thank you, Janine, for providing the introduction to our TCS team here in Vietnam and good afternoon or good morning, everyone. It's a pleasure to participate in this event with colleagues from our regional office in Vancouver and also Janine, of course, on the ground here in Vietnam, and a big thanks to the province of BC for putting together this event and allowing us to speak to you today. As mentioned by Janine, the Trade Commissioner Service has two offices in Vietnam. I manage our team at the Consulate General of Canada in Ho Chi Minh City. The city which you can see behind me is located in the southern part of the country. It is the most populous city in the country with roughly 13 million citizens, formerly known as Saigon. The city is also known as the economic and financial hub of the country. The Trade Commissioner Service team in Ho Chi Minh City is comprised of nine trade commissioners and trade commissioner assistants, along with myself. We have trade commissioners that are covering entire sectors, helping Canadian businesses to grow here in the country. And for some sectors, as Janine mentioned, we share responsibility for Hanoi. So we work very closely together to ensure that you, as our clients, cannot get a seamless and high quality service no matter who you contact here on the ground. While there are niche opportunities in any sectors for Canadian companies in any market, I think part of our role as the Trade Commissioner Service is also to use our local knowledge and our local networks to identify those areas where we see the strongest potential for Canadian companies. So that we can proactively develop those sectors or subsectors for you and be ready to assist you when you're ready to make the jump and come over here, which is mostly virtual these days, but we do hope that we see a lot of you in person very soon once the pandemic is over. For the Consulate General, we have identified the following sectors as those with the highest potential in our view. AgriFood, clean technologies, education, ICT infrastructure, and life sciences, which Heather covers in Vancouver, as she mentioned. I'm not going to talk about AgriFood and ICT because Janine already gave you a bit of information about those sectors, but I'll maybe talk about the other four, which we have officers covering those sectors and ready to help you if you're interested in this market. For clean technologies, as you would expect, Stuart Beck mentioned how fast this country is growing, but with that strong growth and industrialization comes also very quick urbanization and that creates all kinds of challenges in terms of energy in terms of environment. So there is, in particular, for instance, for water waste, water treatment, air pollution controls. So there are strong opportunities and strong demand for leading technologies in those subsectors in clean tech. Particularly, I might say for smaller scale projects, which often are more adapted to Canadian offerings and also for privately funded projects, which tend to be less risky. Vietnam, as mentioned by Stuart before, is an important source of international students for Canada. In fact, education is probably one of our most active sector here for the TCS in Vietnam. Vietnam is the fifth largest source of international students for Canada in general. I believe the latest I've seen was it was the sixth source of international students for BC. The majority of Vietnamese students going to Canada are attending K-12 or colleges. So it's not necessarily a market where we see a lot of students going to Canadian universities, but we do hope to grow that part of the education sector as well in the country. And alongside with student recruitment, of course, there are other opportunities in the education sector for our institutions. We see opportunities in partnerships, joint program delivery, or even professional training. As the economy develops, there's demand from the private sector here to get a high quality professional training that some of our institutions can provide. The third sector I'd like to give you a bit of highlights about is infrastructure. Infrastructure spending in Vietnam is the highest in Southeast Asia. Along with the quick and strong growth that the country is experiencing, there is obviously a real need for better, more infrastructure. It is an extremely competitive space, however, and so I would perhaps say that the largest infrastructure projects that was that are publicly funded may be harder to reach for Canadian companies. But that being said, there are lots of opportunities everywhere. And we think that, for instance, privately funded projects, those that are more niche, for instance, in the high end real estate developments or sports and leisure instructors, as well as just to supply building materials for all those projects are areas where we see opportunities for Canadian exporters. And the last one I will touch on quickly is healthcare. Vietnam's the third largest healthcare market in Southeast Asia. And while it is a young population, it is also a fast aging population. So there's great demand as the country moves forward for all types of life sciences related products and technologies. I would point, for instance, to medical devices, aging care technologies and natural health products, which are areas where I know BC has strong companies. And finally, I think I would be remiss if I did not mention the wood products sector, forest products sector, which is also important to the province. BC Forestry Innovation and Investment BCFI, which is known to everyone in the industry in your province, has been active in developing the Vietnamese market for a number of years now. And we work very closely with them as well. There are opportunities in this sector, as Vietnam is the second largest wood furniture producer in the world behind China. And due to the boom in the real estate sector as well, there's demand for all kinds of wood products. While they don't use wood structures in the construction here, there's demand, for example, for any products that are high quality finishings, for instance. So I think I've given you a very brief overview of those four sectors that Janine had not touched upon. It's also important to note, as Janine has done, that Vietnam is not necessarily the easiest market. It is challenging. It offers a lot of opportunities. But I would say personally that it's perhaps better suited to experienced exporters with a longer term commitment. We are here to help, obviously. So no matter where you are on the exporter experience, I guess, we can help you.  In non-COVID time, I would say it's important to come in person and visit because business relationships are built on trust. And that trust, I think, in this market can only be gained and can be gained a lot if you meet people in person and get to know people, share a meal with them, see their facilities, see their offices. That's very important. We are able to do that virtually as well these days. But I do hope we're able to do that in person very soon as well. It's important to conduct due diligence as in any markets, especially if you're doing business remotely as we are right now. Pay close attention to the shifting legal and business environment as, again, as any market. And I think the TCS with all partners, including the provinces of BC, all other provinces in Canada, EDC, our colleague that's online today as well, we're here to help. Basically contact any of us and if we can help you, we will be happy to do so. If we can't, we'll be happy to redirect you to people who can help you. So no matter what your question here, it won't fall through the cracks, we'll follow up. I look forward to hearing back from you, either during the session or after. And it's been a pleasure to introduce you a bit to what we're doing here at the Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City. Thank you. Thank you very much, Christian, Janine and Heather. In order to keep us on time, I am going to defer my questions for you to the Q&A section. For all of our attendees, please don't forget to put any questions you may have for Janine, Christian, or Heather into the Q&A box and we'll hope to address them during the Q&A section. Moving on to our next speaker, I would like to welcome back Ben Koiznick, the Senior Manager, Ministry of Jobs, Economic Recovery and Innovation to speak and give a short presentation.  Alright, thank you, Ryan. Hi again, everyone. I'm going to, I'll just let kind of pull up the presentation. I'm going to speak to you about the opportunities for BC businesses in Vietnam under the CPTPP. And I will build on some of the things that have already been discussed. So I do apologize for some of the overlap. And I will say I'm also likely to get a little more technical than we have been so far. So hopefully you have some coffee or something like that. Next slide please, Ganna. Before I do that though, just a little bit about the branch that I work for and our ministry, the trade policy and negotiations branch represents BC's interests in domestic and international free trade agreement negotiations, as well as trade disputes affecting British Columbia. And we also do free trade agreement outreach sessions like this tonight to, you know, this morning for you to ensure that the information is available, widely available and widespread and basically demystify some of the free trade agreements for as many people as possible. And that is the ministry's mandate to build a strong sustainable economy and improve the standard of living for all British Columbians, assist businesses with leveraging trade opportunities and existing in the markets, encourage trade diversification and fight protectionism abroad and enhance market access for BC's exports, support communities in all regions of the province to attract investment to create resiliency, and underrepresented export groups throughout British Columbia. Increasing trade and investment in our province is critical to building a strong sustainable economy and an important part of our government's economic recovery plan, as the minister spoke about earlier. Next slide please. So the trade commissioner service went over some of this so I won't spend too much time here but I will say that when the CPTPP was being negotiated BC conducted some economic modeling, which found that BC was expected to benefit more from the CPTPP than it was under the original Trans-Pacific Partnership and Janine alluded to this but the main driver for this conclusion was really just that the US left the original agreement. It left the discussions and ensured that BC businesses like yours wouldn't need to compete with those US producers. And so Canada has that level playing field now with those that do have preferential access. Canada has a leg up on those that don't have that access. The problem is, and Janine was talking about this, that the preferential access is not going to last forever. She mentioned the EU and Vietnam agreement as well as the signals from the United States about potentially rejoining and so that's why BC is doing everything it can to capitalize on this advantage by supporting BC businesses and investors to really leverage the agreement and get into the Vietnam market where it makes sense. Next slide please. So I'm going to jump right into some of the nuts and bolts tariff cuts and elimination. They've been discussed already. These of course reduce the cost of your products and make them more competitive. If somebody told you that your salmon was going to be 18% cheaper in Vietnam under the CPTPP and also 18% cheaper than your competitors who don't have that preferential access. That's very compelling. The tariff reductions also can reduce the costs of things that you may be considering bringing into Canada from from places like Vietnam and other parts of the CPTPP area. So you might be able to bring in an input for and use that into a finished product, saving money. Now I know we have on the line a lot of different businesses representing a wide range of sectors and services. What you're looking at here on the screen is really just some categories where BC has identified some potential opportunities and again these have already been discussed to some degree. But this has been identified just through some market analysis as well as considerations of BC production and competitiveness as well as favorable reductions under the CPTPP. So you can see here the rates under the CPTPP as well as the column that says no FTA is really just the rate that Vietnam applies to products that are coming in from countries where it does not have a free trade agreement. This is also called the most favored nation rate. And so in some cases you can see that the advantages is considerable. Next slide please. This is just some more tariff reductions that we put together based on your registration responses. Of course we don't know exactly the products that all of you are exporting. It's just a snapshot of some of the opportunities when it comes to goods. And I strongly encourage you to visit Canada's tariff finder. This is a online tool that allows you to very easily discover the rates that your products will face in a market with which Canada has a free trade agreement including the CPTPP. Another thing that I'll mention when it comes to goods is that as tariff tariffs have decreased, we have also seen in some cases non tariff barriers and technical barriers to trade increasing. And of course, you know, this is things like differing standards, duplicative testing, unreasonably onerous labeling or certification requirements. Another thing is that the CPTPP actually encourages the use of internationally accepted standards, and it also requires early notification and publication of technical regulations. The other thing that it does is it creates specific committees to attempt to address some of these these barriers. And so if you are facing these we want to know. We can raise them, you know, I'm talking about provincial staff but we can raise them with our federal colleagues like the ones that are on on the call today, and also advocate to have them address through committees like I just mentioned. Next slide please. Okay, let's let's talk a little bit about services I know we had quite a few service providers also register for today's event. The first thing that you will want to know about the agreement is whether or not your service is actually covered. The CPTPP uses what is called a negative list approach. And so this means that all services are covered, unless a specific exception or reservation has been taken to exclude that service. So you need to check the agreement, or better yet, you can contact someone like me and I can walk you through that and try to try to figure that out. And the other thing that you will want to know is really just what some of these core obligations are in the agreement. The first thing is that your service should receive no worse treatment than Vietnam provides services from its other free trade agreement and WTO trade partners. This is known as most favored nation treatment. Your service should also benefit from the same treatment as domestic service providers receive. And that's known as national treatment. Vietnam and of course these these these provisions are reciprocal, but Vietnam should not impose restrictions on the quantity or the types of entities that can supply those services. And Vietnam has committed to expanding some of the market access through the CPTPP in numerous sectors. So that's also good news. And finally, the CPTPP can't impose local presence or residency requirements as a condition of the cross-border supply of a service. The other thing that the services chapter does is, well, sorry, the other thing that you may want to know when it comes to services is temporary entry access. These provisions make it easier for you to enter the market, whether that's as a business visitor, as an investor, or even a highly skilled professional. Finally, Vietnam took some of the least liberal temporary entry commitments among CPTPP partners.  So each country has taken specific commitments. And so that is another thing that we would all be happy to walk you through to discover what sort of opportunities might be there. The other thing I'll mention here is that you should know that temporary entry does not replace the visa process. You need to remind border officials in when you are crossing into the country that's about your reason for entering and the CPTPP's entry into force and so on. Government procurement is another thing I will quickly mention here. It is something that businesses can now compete with domestic suppliers on an equal footing. And that is for government contracts covering goods, services, and above set thresholds. The CPTPP is the first time that Vietnam provided this guaranteed access to its government procurement to any foreign suppliers. That's a great, that's great news. I will note that Vietnam has delayed the applications of certain obligations of the government procurement chapter. It's also using some transitional thresholds. So this is again something that if you are interested in government procurement opportunities, we can we can have a discussion about that. And just like the goods opportunities that I outlined, we've identified some of the server sector opportunities that I believe have been mentioned by several speakers already. Things like ICT and education, agribusiness, infrastructure, clean tech and aerospace. Of course, ultimately it's up to you to determine whether whether any given market is right for you but if you are a service provider and you're curious please please get in touch. Next slide please. Okay, the last thing I'll talk about here is investment. We, the agreement really seeks to create a predictable and stable and really rules based investment climate. And many of the provisions that you see on the screen here really mirror the same concepts that I just went over when it came to services. So national treatment means parties will treat other investors no worse than their own. And most favorite nation, if one of the parties gives an investment from another country, better treatment they will apply it to Canadians as well. Minimum standard of treatment on how investors will be treated. Rules around performance requirements. So parties cannot impose certain conditions on your investment, such as a by local requirement, for example. Covered investments are protected from expropriation and nationalization, except in specific circumstances and in when that happens, there is an expectation that there would be some compensation. Investors can freely transfer their capital and profits related to an investment into and out of the host country subject to subject to some exceptions. And temporary entry again I will mention this because investment is one area where Vietnam has made a commitment so that maybe something worth exploring if you are an investor. The last thing I'll mention is that the CPTPP dispute resolution mechanism can be can be used if an investor believes that their investment undertaking was discriminated against by the host party. Next slide please. Okay, so I know that that was very quick, a lot of information in a very short period of time. I will note that BC is continues to support people and businesses in the recovery from the pandemic. There are initiatives that are available to support small businesses and build an inclusive economic recovery in across the province. And I think if you are interested in leveraging the CPTPP, please contact me at the information that you see here. As I mentioned earlier at the beginning of the session this information will be provided to you by an email as well. And I will ensure that you are connected to the right people and get the assistance that you need. Thank you very much for listening. Thank you very much Ben. Again in the interest of time I think I'll defer my questions for you to the Q&A section. Again for all of our attendees please if you have any questions for Ben don't hesitate to put them in the Q&A box. Moving on to our next speaker I would like to invite Chris, the senior account manager for Export Development Canada programs and services in BC. Chris why don't you take it away. Good morning or good evening everyone and to some good morning. I am trying to start my video here but there's a few issues so I'll continue on and if it kicks in it kicks in. Thank you Mr. Chow, Councilor General Chung, to the members of the BC Ministry of Jobs, Economic Recovery and Innovation. Thank you for allowing EDC to present this evening at this important session and to the registrants who have dialed in. Thank you for attending. My name is Chris DiParraja, senior account manager for Export Development Canada based here on the island. However though I'm on the island we do have a team of colleagues who manage the rest of the province for EDC and the mainland in Vancouver. The intent of my presentation today over the next five minutes or so is to give you a high level overview of EDC, who we are, some commentary on our thoughts on the Vietnamese market and how we can specifically help you grow your brand in Vietnam and across the world. So can you go to the next slide please, Ghana? Well, Export Development Canada is Canada's export credit agency. Our mission is really quite simple. We're here to help Canadian companies grow their brands outside of Canada and succeed in markets across the world. Can you go to the next slide? How do we do that? Well, we support Canadian companies of all sizes so we're not, we don't put any revenue size stamp on type of company you are. Regardless of the size you are, we are able to provide value and sector as well. Traditional exporting companies that have a large reach or companies that are small that have a reach only into certain markets. Regardless of the knowledge and experience, we're able to provide that value to the Canadian exporter. And companies that want to gain that knowledge and experience the breadth of knowledge that we have in the exporting sector are able to engage with us at any time they choose. Next slide please. So a little commentary on Vietnam from the macro view rather. The Vietnam growth is what we see is what we're going to see is outpace China from 2022. Growth is going to be powered by a strong demand for Vietnamese goods such as textiles, footwear, electronics, things of that nature. The manufacturing sector's increasing workforce and employment increases, creating job creation will boost consumption. And there's a strong interest by multinational manufacturers in reducing the reliance on Chinese operations in China to do the current situation there. And that could translate into continued investment into Vietnam. The tourism sector traditionally a big one will remain depressed, most likely for the rest of this year as we navigate through this, however, should pick up significantly in 2022 once facts and ancient campaigns are completed. Some of the couple of the high level risk US Treasury and trade representative policies due to Vietnam's perceived currency manipulation and post lockdown. What does that look like for the country as Western Western countries come out of this will consumers binge on on local products and goods as opposed to Vietnamese imported ones. Next slide please. So a little bit of trade data specifically to specifically speaking to Vietnam. As you can see here, over the last five years from 2016 to 2020, we've seen a pretty impressive growth. The top figure being BC, BC companies exploring specifically to Vietnam so 74 million 203 million 466 million. I mean, we can't comment on 2019 and 2020. I mean, I think there was an obvious reason why there was a drop. But the point being is if you look at the other markets that we are seeing BC companies export to there is growth, but not nearly as significant as Vietnam. So there is a lot of opportunity for BC companies. Next slide please. So the trade here is just kind of made it's broken down a little bit at a little bit more of a granular level. For those that like to have the visual. If you look on the top column in blue 2019 for March onwards, things were moving quite nicely and trade was maturing. You see on the bottom the next column in white 2020 March still haven't really quite figured out this pandemic yet April went along as well. And then we see that big drop in May and June. That's when when reality really sit in and we started seeing a lot of those impacts from from the shutdown and the global pandemic throughout the rest of the year things kind of tapered off here and there and continue to move along. If you look at the bottom, sorry, the bottom left is just simply a visual bar chart of the information that is shown at the top. And if you go to the bottom right, it shows where we are today as of April. So if you look at our export sales in January of 2020 relative to 2021 a little bit of a drop there, but you are starting to see that turn in February with a slight increase from BC companies going to the Vietnamese market. Next slide please. Again, this is just to really highlight the good thing that we're seeing is that trend is continuing to pick upwards or starting to pick upwards for BC registered companies going into this market. We hope to have data that's more recent in the next month or so, and show and really drive home the point that the trade between the two countries between the province and the country is picking up. Next slide. So this visual gives you a little bit of an indication of what we were doing prior to and and as a result of the pandemic 2019 as as has been mentioned before BC exported about 559 male BC companies exported about 359 million to Vietnam. And you can see a large portion of that was related to mining and oil and gas. Manufacturing was a distant second and then a hodgepodge of industries following suit. Flip over to 2020. Absolutely we felt that that heavy hit from what happened around the world significant drop in the amount of exporting that the companies and BC have done to Vietnam. However, if you look at some of the pluses 39% increase in manufacturing, which is broken down to food, food process, processed foods and meats, pulp, wood and paper machinery and audio video equipment, agri food and fishing hunting also a significant increase in in export. So there are some good stories that are emerging from what was a pretty trying time for everyone. If you can go to the next slide please. So, how are we going to help you get there and get to Vietnam get to anywhere else in the world and grow your brand. Well, there's really four kind of buckets that are our products and solutions fall into the first one is financing. We're not a bank, we don't want to be seen as a bank and we're not a direct lender, but we do collaborate and work with your chartered bank and credit you need to get you the capital that you need. You may be a company that's starting to experience rapid growth, you need to invest in working capital, maybe you need to invest in capital expenditures. At the end of the day, when Canadian banks are faced, Canadian banks typically are faced with challenges when providing financing to companies who are exporting into markets outside of North America. And we can come in and provide guarantees to them to enhance their capabilities as a lender. Insurance, this is a risk mitigation tool for you. We have the ability to protect you against non-payment from your foreign buyer. This also is a great tool for you to allow you to enter into new markets. Perhaps the Vietnamese market is one that you've pegged as one that you want to get into but have no prior experience with. This insurance is a risk mitigation factor that will allow you to get into that market and have peace of mind that in the event your foreign buyer does not pay you, you'll recover 90% of the cost of that AR through this insurance. Knowledge, that's just the conversations that you have with myself or my colleagues across the country or across the globe for that matter. We have an advisory services team launched two years ago that's specially focused on providing that conversation piece. Anything from how do I get into the States to how do I protect my trademark and Denmark? Everything in between is something that we can provide value on and have those conversations. If it's not something that we have the ability to provide core support on, we'll steer the ship in the right direction and give you a list of resources that could help and provide value to you. And market connections. We compliment what the Trade Commissioner Services do. We have global offices across the world with boots on the ground and those people are engaging with markets across, engaging with buyers in those respective markets and feeding that information back to our headquarters in Ottawa. We have the ability from time to time when we fully appreciate and understand your capabilities as a BC exporter to provide those introductions to buyers and help facilitate trade for your business. Next slide, please. So at the end of the day, things are pretty positive from an EDC perspective when dealing when doing trade, and there's opportunities for BC companies to grow their brands. The growth for 2021 and onwards is strong with tourism and tourism going to be the main lagging sector. Most exports to Vietnam should start to see the benefits of additional tariff cuts under the CPTPP. Although macroeconomic factors and Vietnam's dependence on SOE state-owned enterprises can pose challenges, the Vietnamese economy provides ample opportunities for Canadian companies in several sectors due to favorable demographics and a growing middle class. And prior to entering the market, companies should be prepared to invest in the necessary time, resources, and resources needed to help develop strong on-the-ground relationships, which is something that was mentioned before. It's advised that Canadian exporters point the local representative to act as an imported distributor for all their direct imports, not only in this market, but in many markets across the globe. And so that, next slide, please, Ghana. That sums up, and in that show, what EDC can potentially do for you. I know it was fast and furious. My information will be shared with the rest of the group through this presentation, so please do not hesitate to reach out to myself or one of my colleagues if you have any questions or concerns around how EDC can be a value partner in your exporting journey. Thank you guys, and over to you, Ben. Or Ryan, sorry. No worries, Chris. Thank you very much for your presentation. I hope everyone here recognizes the opportunity that the EDC really offers in approaching the Vietnamese market. So if you have any questions for Chris, please don't hesitate to put them in the Q&A section and anyone interested in what he had to say about the EDC should also reach out to him directly. Moving on to our next speaker, I would like to invite Peter Ardema, Director of Sales and Marketing at the BC Tree Fruits Cooperative to come and give a presentation on their experience in Vietnam and with the CPTPP. So, welcome, Peter. Thanks, Ryan. Yeah, I'm just quickly talking about the Vietnamese marketplace. We obviously as a fruit company, we benefit from the great reputation that the agribusiness has around the world for Canadian fruit. And we get a lot of requests from different companies, but I think a few things that have really set us apart and really turned our focus to focus on the Vietnamese marketplace. You know, outside of the CPTPP with the reduction of tariffs have just been really I think a lot about what have been talked about today in terms of, you know, the growing economy, the young population. I think the retail sector in Vietnam is growing. You're seeing a lot of foreign investment in retail. You're seeing local retail, you're seeing wholesalers. So as a retailer or as an exporter, it gives you a lot of different options to find a partner in the country that will work with you. You know, it's not necessarily just one, one business you have to work with, you can take your time. The trade commissioners are great to work with you to understand the different retailers, any kind of risk you can feel but I would highly encourage you to take your time to reach out meet with all of them. Like I said, find one that is, you know, wants to partner with you, and you can build a lasting partnership but then it go overall, you know, for us at BC tree fruits and as we look to continue to grow and expand on our apple and cherry business. Vietnam is a very, very positive marketplace for us, as well as obviously their, you know, their growth in the digital side of things the online side of things it just provides opportunities for us for very long time so very happy to be partnering currently in Vietnam and continuing to spend or expand our partnerships there. So I think that's it Ryan. Thank you very much Peter fast and furious there. I think because I've deferred all the rest of the questions I'll defer yours as well. You put us closer to back on time thank you very much for that. I would now like to welcome Sanjay Kumar from acuva technologies, the director of product management to come and and speak present. So please welcome Sanjay. Thank you Ben. Good evening good morning everybody depending on where you are. Well, honorable Mr. Minister chow and all the panel members. Thank you very much for this opportunity. So, just a little bit about acuva next site please. Yeah so In the decade of R&D in UV LED sector which is a very new technology comparatively. We have around 16 patents in our portfolio and a very comprehensive team, a lot of PSD is in our team and we are proudly say that we are a global leader of UV LED technology, which is used for disinfection of surface water and currently we have products in water and surface disinfection and air disinfection products are coming shortly. Next slide please. So, if you see our presence via headquartered obviously in British Columbia, but we also have our subsidiary in USA, India, and Germany. We have contract manufacturer in India Brazil and China and suppliers all over the world mainly Korea, China, India. We also have one contract manufacturer arrangement in Vietnam that we did not start yet but we may start soon. So, global presence and our market is global we are trying to export most of our export is in Germany, Italy, and, you know, European countries and USA of course but that we, it is our own backyard so we don't consider that as export a lot. So, these are the countries we are exporting a lot. We are also exporting to India discussion is going on, we are exporting to Singapore, Philippines, and I will take this opportunity to thank, thank, you know, VC Trade Commission Service and Federal Trade Commission Services, mainly in Singapore, Michael, Michael Nicholas, who helped us in exporting in Singapore and Eva and Angela in Philippines and Philippines is the customer in Philippines cooler technologies is one of our anchor customer. And they till date they are one of the biggest customers we have. So, thank you so much guys for your efforts really appreciate it in India. Again, we got help from VC Trade Trade Commission and mainly from Amar Bir and Vijeta and we are engaged with a very large customer OEM customer and right now they are doing pilot testing but very soon we may see some revenue coming from there. We are also very active in the Latin America and literally, you know, things are getting on track, so we are getting good export from there. Next slide please. So, what are the applications basically we are into drinking water disinfection our our units our products are can be operated on 12 volt DC which makes it very convenient and probably one of only few options for water disinfection on board in recreational vehicles, boards or any any other place of the grid. Home is of course our units operate on 110 volt or 220 volt AC as well so very convenient option for home water purification and in other areas we are in US we have a customer in life sciences, they make dialysis machines and use our system to purify their water. Our system is also very popular for ice makers, one of the biggest ice maker company of the world, fallot anybody from US or North America must recognize that name. So they are our customers so our portfolio is growing and we are trying to make more export as I speak. Next slide please. Yeah, so applications are we are we have consumer products that can be sold to consumers directly or we have OEM products that you can see these rods. They are basically chambers for you really the reaction to take place or radiation to take place and to purify the water inside the chamber as water passes through the chamber. And these can be integrated into any kind of ice maker or refrigerator or any kind of machines. Next slide please. So our portfolio strike platform is for OEM and you see arrow max and equinex these products are for water purification point of use can be deployed under your sink and they can serve one faucet. There is one product you see here Solarix which is surface disinfection infection product. It is the first and only product in the world that got validated against SARS-CoV-2 virus it can disinfect SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 within 10 seconds and provides up to 99.99% 97% sorry 99.97% disinfection against SARS-CoV-2 in 10 seconds. This is validated by a biosafety level three lab, which is approved by CDC US in Buffalo. And the last product that you see extreme right is point of entry product that can, you know purify water up to 8 to 10 gallons per minute, and which can purify water for whole house or whole office. And this is coming in late this year and that can probably you know change the rules of the game. We are very excited about it. Next slide please. So Solarix I already told this is just you know representation how it can disinfect you know any kind of surface. Next slide please. Yeah, so that's it I think thank you very much. And open for questions if you have any. Thank you very much Sanjay. And as we move into the Q&A section I would like to invite all of our speakers to turn their video back on and we'll ask a few questions. I've been watching the Q&A section and the chat and a lot of the questions that we received so far have been very specific. And I've seen that many of them have been answered directly already. That being said I think maybe a good way to start the conversation is to bring it back to what the people on the webinar today need to know. And most of our speakers have touched on the challenges that are faced here in doing business in Vietnam and maybe each one of our speakers could just quickly comment on the challenges they see and what could be done or what is being done to address them. So Sanjay you just spoke why don't you start with some of the challenges you see to doing business in Vietnam and what can be done to address them and maybe we can get the trade commission service to speak to what's being done. Well thank you so much. So challenges I would say we very recently entered into Vietnam market just had one customer but the challenges I see our technology is new and people do not understand the technology so first challenge is to educate the market. We have done that job in North America and in Europe because we have local presence since we do not have any presence in Vietnam or nearby market. It's very difficult to educate the customers from here that is number one and number two early adopters I mean for any new technology we need early adopters. And to identify early adopters in a market that we don't understand is little difficult. So I think that is our challenge number two and challenge number three is price sensitivity Vietnam market is a little price sensitive and our products are little expensive. So that is challenge number three. Actually you're I have the same conversation with many businesses that are interested in Vietnam and having feet on the ground here does seem to make a very big difference and it is a price sensitive market. But as you say with a little bit of time spent it tends to get a little bit easier. Thank you for your for sharing Peter would you like to speak to it as well. It's very similar to Sanjay a lot of the the issues we face is not having feet on the ground there. There's a lot of trust when you're you know when you're when we're moving for it there. You know consider on the water anyway 30 to 40 days it gets there so you're relying on somebody to receive the product. You know take it in so that's always a bit of a concern for us in terms of. You really need to know who you're partnering with that it's it's fair that you know they're they're giving you a fair read on exactly what the fruit shape is coming in with something we are looking at is potentially trying to partner with somebody to you know to have those feet on the ground just to make sure that you know that that risk is mitigated but really for us that is truly probably the biggest risk we face when we're you know when we're shipping fruit there but like I said you you know you get a good partner and then hopefully those are the things that we really need to make sure that claims rate for us stays as low as possible. Fantastic. Thank you for for sharing Peter. Why don't we move to the trade commission service either Jeanine Christian or Heather, some of the things that you've touched on some of the challenges. Do you have anything you'd like to go back to read it right. I wanted to sort of identify some of the challenges I can see at the moment and I think that is really with experiencing different reopening strategies and context as we sort of move into the next phases and I don't I don't know if we call it post cove it or or just after I don't know what we're calling it but I think that is one of the challenges we're starting to hear from clients coming to us to say hey. Are there any differences or do we have to worry about whether it's raw material supplies or or have any chain things changed in export controls. So those are the issues we deal with here and then again like I said at the beginning through our network we connect them with our colleagues abroad and so as Sanjay I think you were talking about, you know, just having that sort of intelligence in market and that's where, as you worked with the trade pressure service in Vancouver, we would then connect you with our colleagues so I guess from the regional office perspective it's really, I'm seeing the uncertainty of what happens next and how we're moving forward. So Heather thank you for that one suggestion if I may. I attended one trade one trade event in Amsterdam, and I saw Germany Pavilion and they have a very innovative way of you know, as you getting the market what is what all innovations are going on in Germany like different technologies different companies and things like that. So, in general people get interested like oh really they developed this they they are this is how they are doing it. And then you know it helps in educating the market and this this is just one way a small documentary that you know features new technologies new innovations how Canada is helping in their case how Germany is helping you know. So maybe one way there may be other ways but I would love to learn from more from you. I don't know if anyone else wants to comment I did see there was a question sort of similar to that in the chat then were you addressing that it's it's mostly about sort of upcoming it was an upcoming conference and are we going to be having the I think I'm sending that would sort of address that question as well oftentimes when we have a presence at a conference or at a trade show we'll have that sort of educational piece. And we do highlight media companies just like today as well, but then were you responding to that question I think it's sort of similar. Yeah, I think that I think I was responding to that one Heather and for BC I think it's mostly just a question of budget and setting, you know, priorities and where we're going to go that which hasn't hasn't been done yet but certainly if there's a specific event that someone is curious about. We can connect them with the appropriate provincial staff. And so that's that's what it looks like from a provincial perspective. I can just tack something on there outside of the Canada pavilion and that sort of thing. One of the things that the Chamber does or is interested in doing more of is providing that kind of educational material when we have enough interest coming from companies in Canada. So, for any of the people in attendance. Now, when when you're interested in something like that don't hesitate to reach out to us and you know, we're happy to try to support if there is the opportunity to do so. Yeah, if I can just add to that I would also mention that I think it's really important to buy a other or if you already have an existing relationship with the trade commissioner in Vietnam. That you should reach out to that trade commissioner because what we see with a lot of these challenges is that they're ongoing and they're repetitive so I think you would probably have some valuable advice and those trade commissioners can really experiences as well that might with your decisions or your issues. And because Vietnam is Vietnam there's also many unusual things that pop up all the time as well but it's really important to get the trade commissioner to have some knowledge of what's happening in advance because that better prepares us to assist you when we're talking to you with some of these issues so I would just really recommend that you keep an open mind communication with the trade commissioner responsible for a sector. Yeah. Peter this sort of goes to your question as well when you're talking about looking for partnerships and sort of betting those partners and understanding you know is this a trustworthy partner to be on the ground for me and I think that's again where we were having a conversation here in Vancouver, I would then introduce you to our team of trade commissioners abroad whether that's a provincial counterparts or trade commissioners with global affairs or whoever the relevant person might be. And where we can, we certainly can help you to event those partners to give you some intelligence that we've got it. So, again, encouraging you to reach out and ask the questions. I think Christian mentioned it when he was talking that, you know, we, if we can't find the answers, we'll certainly do our best to find someone who can. So, this is where we're always encouraging clients and companies to say, you know, bring us your problems, we're problem solvers that's what we all do. And we'll do our best to help work again. And I would just add to that, Ryan, what Heather was just talking about, you know, BC's team is sort of positioned in the same way and so if there are specific sectors or partnerships or whatever it might be in a particular area please just connect with us and I can make sure that you're connected to the right person within the problem. I was just going to say, I know there was a question in the chat box while finding the right partner and to reiterate what Heather said I would heavily start by relying on the trade commissioners are great asset in terms of understanding the landscape you're looking at sort of who all your potential customers could be. They give you a lot of insights into, you know, what's going on but I'd also, you know, I'd encourage you to reach out to other exporters and in network that way to find out if some of the issues that they've dealt with or any kind of, you know, heads up that they can give you. I think that's, that's a very viable solution to sort of figuring out who you're going to go with and you can save yourself some, some headaches just, you know, going in with your eyes open. Would anyone else like to add any commentary on top of that. Okay. Well, it seems like a big piece of advice has been to reach out to the trade commission service and reach out to the resources that are available to you. Given that some of the other one of the other questions in the question and answer box. Maybe we should end with a final question just for all the speakers. You can say it again if you want to if you've already addressed it. What's the biggest piece of advice you can give to the people on the webinar today, when it comes to the Vietnam market, whether be short medium or long term, just the best piece of it. Peter, you're, you're here. Why don't you start you can say it again with the trade mission serve trade mission service if you'd like, but then we'll move down the line. Yeah, I know it was said and I think I haven't been yet but I think one of the things if you do get the opportunity to get in country and build that partnership is it's from everybody that I've talked to is a huge benefit and will really go to fostering a strategic partnership with your partners. Right. Sanjay you want to go next. I'm absolutely with Peter so we signed an agreement with one Vietnamese company company and they were our first customer. This was, this was way back in last year in March I think February. We were supposed to travel there to launch the product and but then COVID happened and that I couldn't travel and couldn't promote the product. And that was our first and the last order from that company. So, I think presents on the ground I'm sure if I would have been there probably, you know it would have moved and we would have been exporting, but that was the only order presents on the ground is very important that is number one, number two, my experience with trade commission in India is fabulous, especially in a local festival. It's called Diwali.   So it is very important to, you know, meet these customers personally and listen to their pain points and which is not possible sometimes in June call and in teleconferencing. Okay. Thank you very much Sanjay. Chris, would you like to speak to your perspective or your offer some advice from your perspective at the EDC. I don't feel like you're in on this journey alone. I mean, there's clearly an enormous amount of government support here for you as an exporter and we appreciate that a lot of companies have their heads down and are trying to juggle a lot of things at the same time. So early engagement and being just completely honest with what your pain points are are valuable as valuable information to us as a crime corporation and I'm sure to other agencies to help address that. And at the end of the day we're all in it to make you sustainable successful. So that's that's the common goal there. Thanks very much Chris. What about you, Ben? Yeah, so I guess something I would say is also related to one of the challenges, and it has to do with claiming preferential treatment so it's a question that we get a lot, which is, you know, is this something that's automatic. And this may be a little more informative for our good exporters on the call. But there's also some evidence, a growing evidence that people are not claiming the preferential treatment, even though they qualify for it. One thing I would just mention is making sure you understand those steps that need to be taken in order to do that. So we talked about Canada's tariff finder, great. You know the tariff that your product will face and it's good and you like that. That's great. That's a great first step. The first thing you need to know though is whether or not your product is going to meet the rules of origin under the agreement. You know, if that product is solely coming from, you know, from BC and Canada, that's fine. But as soon as that product takes inputs from outside of Canada and the trade area, it becomes a little more complicated. So figuring out whether it meets those rules is important. And then, and then you need to be able to claim the preferential rate and to do that you need a certificate of origin. So this was I think a question was raised in the Q&A and I know we'll follow up with that individual to discuss this in more detail. But, you know, the CPTPP tries to make this process as simple as possible and as clear as possible. But there are some minimum requirements to do that. And Vietnam took some specific exceptions with respect to this process. So knowing what those are and navigating those is also an important part of the process. And the last thing I mentioned is if there's uncertainty around how your product is going to be treated when it gets to the border, you should consider applying for an advanced ruling. This is something that the customs authorities of the CPTPP parties have committed to do and it will give you certainty that your product will be classified as you think it will be. And that it meets the rules of origin and that it won't be facing duties, you know, surprisingly when it gets to the border. So you can know all of that before it even leaves Canada. Thank you very much, Ben. Heather, what about you? Thank you so much more from me actually tonight. I think everyone said it really well. I guess I'll just leave you with again, reiterating please reach out for help. We're here to do it. I think everyone is in this together. So yeah, I'll leave it there. Thank you very much, Heather. Christian, would you like to add anything? Just one more time. Just, it was a question in the questions box, a lot of specific questions about tariffs on specific products. There is a great resource online called tarifffinder.ca. For trade agreements, you can go there, enter the specific HS code that your product is about and the market that you want to export it to and you'll get all that information. If you have any questions, you're not sure you can still contact us, but that's the first step I would highly recommend if you're looking for tariff information that you go on tarifffinder.ca. Thank you, Christian and Janine, would you like to add anything on top? No, I think everything's been well covered. Well, then I guess the last piece of advice is mine. And that is, I mean, we've heard from all of our speakers, they've offered some really strong advice. And the advice that I'd like to give is take that step. Look at the Vietnamese market and then take that step. There's so much opportunity here. We do have a lot of resources available available to support you. So don't hesitate to use tarifffinder. Don't hesitate to reach out to the services and the speakers here today. And if you can get some in market presence. And with that, I think that we're going to speak to specific questions after the or respond to specific questions after the webinar. Yeah, don't hesitate to reach out to the speakers and to myself or the Canadian Chamber of Commerce here in Vietnam. And thanks for joining today. Thanks to all of our speakers. And for me, I'll put on to Ben to say some closing remarks. Thanks. Thank you, Ryan. Yes, I will not keep everyone too much further, but we really appreciate you joining us today. I know we've thrown a lot of information to you in a short period of time. So I will just reiterate what Ryan was just saying, which is, please understand that we are all here to help you with your export journey. And whether that's in Vietnam or another destination. Please keep your eyes open for the follow up email that I mentioned earlier with some information and links to the recording. And thank you, Minister Chow and console, Mr. Consul General, Stuart Beck and all of our panelists for your contributions today. And thank you all for joining we hope to hear from you.