Youthful Vision

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y the time the year 2005 rolls around, we intend to enhance our role as a global leader. CINAR has entered the rapidly expanding field of supplementary education products in the U.S., an estimated $10 billion market. Today CINAR Education produces more than 2,000 products, such as workbooks, charts and puzzles, to enhance classroom curriculums. We have expanded our educational line with print, audio and video items based on Wimzie's House and The Busy World of Richard Scarry. With the acquisition of education-software specialist EduSoft, based in Israel, we are creating interactive products that will enable us to capitalize on Internet-related opportunities in the classroom. We are establishing an e-commerce strategy for the distribution of our educational products to schools and day-care centers, and we are working to put our characters, multimedia and educational products in the hands and hearts of more than 300 million Chinese children, starting with two Canadian-Chinese co-productions.

Whatever technologies may appear in the future, we firmly believe ownership of content--the stories we tell, the characters we bring to life--rather than technical wizardry is the way of the future. With a growing library that already encompasses some 1,500 half-hours of quality programs and some of the world's most beloved children's characters, CINAR has secured for itself--and Canada--a role as a significant exporter of cultural property.

Micheline Charest and Ronald A. Weinberg are co-founders and co-CEOS of CINAR and its chairman and president, respectively. They are also wife and husband.