As the clock winds down on 2023, I am filled with optimism and confidence. I understand this might come off as strange in a year that presented many serious challenges—not only for Canadian businesses, but for people around the world.
Although the direct effects of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine—financial and supply chain crises, global food insecurity and the energy crunch—began to wane, 2023 still saw high inflation, rising interest rates, another war, slowing domestic demand and weaker growth from our largest trading partner.
These were real challenges that caused real difficulties for our customers, Canadian exporters.
But at the same time, the breadth of international opportunities has never been greater.
We’re expecting to see Canada’s natural resources and world-leading clean technologies play a key role in the ongoing energy transition; our innovative high-tech ecosystem has the opportunity to take a leading role as industries, economies and societies progress in their technological transformations; exciting new commercial partnerships in rapidly growing regions are giving Canadian exporters more reasons to diversify beyond our long-standing trade partners; and our standing as one of the world’s most agriculturally self-sufficient countries means Canada’s full agri-food supply chain will play a critical role in feeding an increasingly resource-constrained world.
The dichotomy between challenges and opportunities is striking. In fact, I could say I’ve probably never seen both sides of the equation this high, simultaneously.
However, at EDC we are acutely aware that it’s immensely difficult to focus on long-term plans when each day seems to bring new challenges. We know that any kind of change in your business—whether that’s diversifying your products, buyers or markets—is daunting when there are so many unknowns and so much risk in the business landscape. That is why we are here.
We are here to help you find, and then seize, the opportunities. We are here to take on risk—whether by offering loans, guarantees or insurance—to help Canadian exporters find growth and success in international markets. Your success is our vision.
Our 2030 strategy is to enable and accelerate the success of our customers. It is built on the premise of caring and listening to them, so we can adapt our business—our offerings as well as our ways of working—to better meet their needs and, ultimately, help grow Canada’s exports by 60% over 2020 levels.
With that in mind, EDC’s focus on growing Canada’s medium segment exports saw us work with more than 1,240 financial customers in that segment. Our commitment to helping customers diversify their markets saw us expand in the Indo-Pacific region with representation openings in Seoul and Jakarta, an increase in the capabilities at our Singapore branch and plans for three more openings in 2024. We also worked to modernize our digital systems to make it easier and faster for micro and small businesses to access our solutions. And, of course, we continued to lead with strong ESG principles, whether by decarbonizing our own operations, laying the foundation for sustainable portfolio growth through our new Sustainable Finance Framework, supporting a record number of customers in cleantech and renewables, or working to ensure every Canadian business owner has the same opportunity to achieve their international goals.
In the pages of this integrated annual report, which is accompanied by stand-alone human rights and climate reports, you’ll find more details about the achievements and opportunities I’ve just mentioned, and much more. As you continue reading, I hope it will become easy to see where my optimism is rooted.
It is thanks to the efforts of the people who work at EDC that 2023 was a year in which our customers were able to grow, build and accelerate the export impact. This is something all our employees are very proud of and sets an amazing foundation for EDC to support more Canadian ambition and growth in 2024—EDC’s 80th anniversary.
