a very broad level are reasonably similar and, beyond the resource sector concentration, not all that different from the “ norm ” among industrialised economies. i thank kathryn ford and jennie cassidy for assistance in preparing these remarks. canada is, of course, famously bilingual. in both countries, chinese languages ( that is, cantonese, mandarin and other chinese languages ) are the most commonly spoken languages after english ( and after french in canada ). dodge d ( 2006 ), “ prospering in today ’ s global economy : challenges for open economies such as australia and canada ”, address to the sydney institute and the canadian australian chamber of commerce, 6 november. trade and financial flows between australia and canada are small – canada accounted for around 1 per cent of australia ’ s merchandise exports and imports in 2008, and around 1 per cent of foreign investment received by australia. but trade overall is very important to australia, and even more so to canada. exports of goods and services amounted to just under a quarter of australian gdp in 2008 and more than a third of canadian gdp. commodities make up a significant share of the value of merchandise exports in both countries, although they are rather more important to australia, as canada also has sizeable exports of machinery, equipment and cars ( table 2 ). the composition of the two countries ’ commodity exports differs somewhat – canada ’ s exports include a larger share of crude oil, natural gas and forestry products, while australia has a larger share of exports in coal, iron ore and many metals. commodity prices tend to vary quite a bit, of course, driven largely by the ebb and flow of the world business cycle. this means that fluctuations in the terms of trade have long been an important feature of both countries ’ economic experiences. for many years, the movements seemed to be quite similar – at least until the international downturn of 2001 ( graph 1 ). graph 1 in the subsequent global upswing, while both countries saw their terms of trade increase, australia ’ s terms of trade began to pull ahead of canada ’ s. between the beginning of 2002 and the middle of last year, the canadian terms of trade had risen by more than 30 per cent. but over the same period, the australian terms of trade rose by over 60 per cent. why the difference? the answer is that the more rapid rise for australia reflected the fact that our exports have a higher share of commodities, and within that, a higher weighting towards the commodities that had experienced the largest price increases (

attractiveness of these instruments in their portfolios. however, there are early signs of a more active secondary market beginning to resurface as turnover has increased in the past year. 4. conclusion the stable inflation environment means that the fixed income structure of bonds has become relatively more attractive to investors with risk profiles that demand a steady real rate of return. also, economic growth has been more robust in recent years amid heightened investor optimism about the country's future prospects. improved economic fundamentals translate into enhanced growth prospects for south african corporates and a concomitant need for long - term debt financing. the development of this sector of the bond market offers borrowers in the private sector access to long - term finance from the capital markets. i am aware that some of south africa ’ s important corporates are here to participate in this conference. we look forward with keen interest to your contributions to the growth of this sector of the market. i wish you well during your deliberations. thank you for your attention.