The document below is a translated excerpt from President Rafael Correa’s January 31, 2009 national radio address.

You will note that it contains strong statements from the President regarding the need for Ecuador to work with Canada and Canadian mining companies to develop a responsible mining industry in Ecuador.

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NATIONAL RADIO ADDRESS

Translation to English

Presidential Radio Program # 106 in El Quinche

Date: January 31, 2009

Three fields of action with Canada! We are eager to make the most of these opportunities; we are already working with the Canadian Ambassador in that respect.

At 2:00...no a bit later at 2:15 we had a lunch meeting with Mr. Christian Lapointe the Ambassador of Canada; Canada one of the greatest countries, huge markets and we ignored it...It is very impressive what we can achieve with Canada!

Canada is also a country that has a history of peace, of great development; many times it exceeded the United Nations Human Development Index. It is the largest country in the world or maybe it is between the two or three largest. It is the country with the largest amount of natural resources, with the greatest amount of fresh water, with the largest area of forests and we have not made the most out of our relationship with Canada... but now we are going to.

There are important perspectives of investment in the mining sector; they are very happy with the new mining law, a lot of the mining companies are Canadian. But be careful! There are some that are not genuine Canadian, but they are listed in the Canadian stock market.

Canada has strict, very strict... I would say levels of environmental controls to the point that in Canada...the mining GDP must be 10, 12% of the total GDP of Canada which is a huge GDP. Most of the Canadian development is due to its mining development but at the same time it has the greatest reserves of fresh water, they knew how to privilege and benefit their ancestral peoples,

I have asked the Canadian Ambassador to bring here those ancestral peoples to give their testimony, because here some ancestral people’s leaders have taken the anti mining flag, not all of them, a great part of the Shuar and the Quichua communities agree with mining; by the way; mining was one of the Inca and pre Inca’s activities in what is today known as Ecuador; anyways their war motto is “the indigenous peoples in defense of the Pachamama are opposed to mining”: that is false, this is true only for a few of them, the radicals.

To start with: Evo Morales is the first indigenous president in Latin America... and in Bolivia mining is the most important activity, go to him then! and tell him to close the mines and wait for his answer! Secondly: the experience of Canada with a responsible mining: the first ones who benefited were the ancestral peoples, and by the way: I ask the Ambassador to bring here those representatives of the ancestral peoples... obviously in order to give their testimony and to demonstrate there is so much fallacy circulating managed by some radical groups that talk in the name of all but do not represent anybody.

But this is not the only field; there are construction companies... tourism one of the most important touristic influx to Cuba is from Canada, to Dominican Republic, 10 years, 8 years ago there were 22.000 tourists from Canada, today there are 700.000. To Ecuado there is only 60.000 coming.