Category Archives: Resource Based Economy

B.C. election day is near, and I read of the looming consequences of climate change on people all over the planet.

We hear promises of jobs here, of tax cuts, of life continuing in a resource-based economy, and it just doesnt match the world anymore. It will take a concerted effort by all of us literally to weather the upcoming storms.

As communities in our province already face unprecedented floods, winds, fire, landslides, we can no longer base our decisions on simplistic promises of jobs.

The other side of the story is how technology is changing our life careers, eliminating job upon job to attain increased efficiency and profit. While our present government pushes mega-projects and self-regulation of companies, our volunteer organizations are overwhelmed with providing services for those left behind.

On May 9, beware of empty promises that are once again dragged out, dusted off and put out on the curb as the future of B.C.Our children and grandchildren are the future, and they will pay the consequences for our decisions today.

Dorothy Drubek

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Political promises ignore our new realities - Times Colonist

In the final days of the 2017 election campaign, post-secondary education is top of mind for three MLAs from the three main political parties who are all seeking re-election.

Green Andrew Weaver, New Democrat Carole James and Liberal Andrew Wilkinson all stress the importance of the sector as an economic driver.

Weaver says that at the height of his career at the University of Victoria, he was more than a teacher, he was an employer.

I had 20 people working in my lab, said Weaver, once part of UVics School of Earth and Ocean Sciences and still considered a faculty member.

The MLA for Oak Bay-Gordon Head which includes UVic said that the salaries and budgets for those research workers were largely paid with money he attracted from outside Victoria.

Weaver said research grants from the federal government were often matched by the province. There was also money from international agencies, and by private industry, Canadian and international.

Weavers experience, he said, was replicated with researchers and scholars throughout the university.

Not every faculty member is going to invent a widget that everyone is going to want to buy, said Weaver. But the collective emphasis on research at the faculty level has a profound impact.

Greater Victoria is enriched by the presence of UVic, Camosun College and Royal Roads University in ways far beyond their direct local spending. Post-secondary institutions create and sustain a dynamism thats a perfect backstop to the 21st-Century knowledge-based economy.

Advanced Education Minister Andrew Wilkinson, the MLA for Vancouver-Quilchena, said its only been in the past 20 years that universities and colleges have been widely recognized as enormous community assets.

You get the student vitality, but you also get all the collateral attractions, said Wilkinson.

He said B.C. can claim 25 public universities and colleges, and all of them are competing with the best in Canada and around the world.

They are all major institutions in their respective communities, said Wilkinson. People love to host them, they love to attend them, they love to teach at them.

Universities and colleges are now recognized as major sources of cultural and economic well being, he said.

Victoria-Beacon Hill MLA Carole James said Greater Victoria also benefits from Camosun College and Royal Roads University, both filling roles in the local knowledge-based economy.

Beyond training skilled tradespeople, she said, Camosun provides contract research for companies needing problems fixed, or products or services tested.

With the Camosun Innovates program, businesses can get help from college labs, equipment and practice space. Students and instructors will work on a specific problem.

Thats a huge resource for the businesses in our community, said James, a former chairwoman of the Greater Victoria School District.

At one time, students would take university courses at college, then transfer to universities, but the movement today goes both ways.

But now, UVic students are moving to Camosun for its five degrees in business and health studies, or for practical certificates. The college says 18 per cent of its students have bachelor or even graduate degrees.

We have very practical research going on right now that is a helping businesses to succeed beyond expectations, James said. That wouldnt happen without the synergy of universities and colleges here.

James also said universities and colleges help make communities grow. People from Victoria will train for lives in Victoria, and those from outside get a sample of the Victoria experience and decide to stay.

People are just more likely to stay in a community if they were educated and trained in that community, she said.

Tony Eder, UVics executive director for resource planning, was a co-author of 2012 study that determined UVic, with its salaries, maintenance and new construction, resulted in salaries of about $584 million.

But the total economic impact money generated in the surrounding community was $3.1 billion. Today, Eder estimates UVics economic impact would exceed $4 billion.

Eder said similar benefits occur wherever universities locate.

Its such a treasure for any community to have an organization like a research institution, he said. The research that happens will lead to innovations that build economic activity in the community, the province.

Terry Cockerline, UVics director of alumni relations, said graduates regularly say they would like to stay in Victoria. Students fall in love with this place.

About 30 per cent of the students at UVic are local, and Cockerline said 30,000 of UVics 115,000 alumni are listed as living here.

He said UVic alumni are proving themselves to be solid community members. He said UVic attracts some of the best students in the world, and its graduates are people who are generally committed to giving back and contributing.

They are running not-for-profits, engaged in private enterprise, lots of entrepreneurship, government, health care. Virtually every sector of the local economy has a UVic connection, said Cockerline.

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Capital: Post-secondary schools propel region's knowledge-based economy - Times Colonist

Even as the US moves towards passive investing and indexing approaches, it appears that institutional investors will need to be more focused on an active investment approach to their emerging market equities investments in future.

Based on a survey of institutional investors, Oppenheimer Funds and Greenwich Associates report that economic development in emerging markets will be led by rising levels of education, infrastructure investment, and innovation. Investors see this shift from an old economy to a new economy as creating fundamental market change.

Institutional investors see the evolution of emerging market countries from resource-based, commodity-dependent economies to more diversified and dynamic economies as the dominant trend for the next decade, according to Andrew McCollum, a Greenwich Associates managing director. As that transformation takes hold, investment managers ability to generate alpha will require a much more integrated investment process that focuses on bottom-up fundamentals but blends top-down macroeconomic and political perspectives.

As emerging markets transform from resource-based economies focused on commodities, energy, and manufacturing to more diversified economies, there will be more of an emphasis on picking the right companies to invest in, rather than a broader country focus. Sectors such as healthcare and technology will be more in evidence in emerging markets. And economies that have been more export-focused will also get a boost from domestic demand, with the expansion of the middle class, making for growth in consumer goods industries.

This shift in the emerging markets makeup will call for a greater emphasis on bottom-up fundamental analysis. While the bigger macroeconomic picture and geopolitical factors will still be important, the previous approach of rotating country exposure and focusing on the mostly state-owned enterprises that tend to make up a majority of a countrys market valuation is changing to more detailed knowledge of each countrys market, and the companies and industries it encompasses.

Thats why 78% of the US institutional investors surveyed expect that in the next 10 years, their emerging markets exposure will be in the form of active strategies rather than more passive strategies. And nearly 25% of endowments, foundations, and corporate pension plans with assets under management below the $1 billion threshold anticipate hiring an emerging-market equity manager in the next year, along with about 20% of public funds at the same asset size.

In addition, 31% of US investors and 85% of European investors expect that they will consider environmental, social, and governance (ESG) aspects in their analysis of emerging-markets investments.

The survey included 121 US and European institutional investors, such as corporate pension funds, public pension funds, endowments, and foundations.

Tags: active management, emerging markets, ESG, Greenwich, Oppenheimer

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Survey Sees Shift to Active Strategies for Emerging Markets Investments - Chief Investment Officer

The Federal Government wants Nigerians in diaspora to assist the country in attainingeconomic and technological development.

Minister of Science and Technology, Ogbonnaya Onu, told Nigerians who attended an Investment Forum in New York that the diaspora had a lot to contribute to the country.

Correspondent Detola Ademola reports thatNigeria has always been known as a resource-based economy, but the federal government is determined to change that.

Speaking to Nigerian scientists and Inventors in new York, the minister of Science and Technology, Ogbonnaya Onu, said the country needs their help.

Onu said the task of developing Nigeria had now become an urgent one, particularly with science and technology as the livewire of the development.

On their part, Nigerian diasporans called for transparency and removal ofbottlenecks in government businesses to aid investment.

The Technology minister promised that any finding made from the researches would be commercialized and the funds would be used to develop the country.

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Nigerian govt canvasses diaspora support for economic devt - TVC News

Vince MuseweCorrespondent PROFESSOR Erik Reinert in his book titled How Rich Countries Got Rich and Why Poor Countries Stay Poor argued it will only be when an economy adopts strategies to deliberately industrialise through manufacturing that it can begin to achieve increasing marginal returns to create employment and sustainable higher incomes.

Reinerts argument suggests we should therefore slowly move away from resource-based revenues because they give diminishing marginal returns and move towards rapid industrialisation to achieve our developmental objectives.

There is no shortage of ideas out there with regard to how Zimbabwe can get out of this rut.

However, we have to come together as a nation and rally ourselves around a compelling inclusive national development strategy at whose centre must be localised developmental initiatives which benefit our people first.

Indigenisation will not create the necessary economic momentum because it is not a creative process, but rather a policy based on taking ownership of already existing and somewhat old enterprises.

We must look outside indigenisation to better and broader local economic empowerment strategies and if necessary protect our economy to allow sustainable capacity building and revival.

Rich countries became rich through industrialisation and the promotion of vibrant local business, while protecting their industries from foreign competition to allow themselves to build the necessary momentum and capacity. We must do the same.

In one of his appendices in the book, Reinert includes Phillip von Hornigks Nine Points on How to Emulate Rich Countries written in 1684, well before Adam Smith in 1930. Hornigk is the author of a book which outlined Austrias strategy in 1684, which resulted in the greatest increase in Austrias wealth over 100 years.

I have just extracted the relevant points and attempted to be as brief as possible, while paraphrasing and consolidating those issues raised by Hornigk:

The first point he raised is that any country should inspect its soils with greatest care, not to leave any agricultural possibilities of a single corner or clod of earth unconsidered. Every useful form of plant under the sun should be experimented with and considered for adoption to the country.

Agriculture remains the cornerstone of our economic revival, hence we must do all we can to restore a vibrant market-driven agricultural sector with minimal government interference.

We must also increase our research capabilities so that we come up with new methods and products.Secondly, Hornigk says no trouble or expense should be spared to find gold or silver and keep it.

Gold and silver, once in the country, whether from own mines or obtained by industry from other countries, are under no circumstances to be taken out for any purpose. They should never be converted into any use which destroys them.

We must therefore invest in more exploration and re-examine the bottlenecks which continue to stifle minerals production.Zimbabwe can achieve the production of 100 tonnes of gold per annum compared to the current 25 tonnes.

However, we must do all we can to increase our gold reserves by dealing with leakages and if we can, avoid the need to convert all of it into cash and build our own reserves.

The third point he raises is that all commodities found in the country, which cannot be used in their natural state should be worked up within the country since payment for manufacturing generally exceeds the value of raw materials by two, three, 10, 20 or even hundred-fold and the neglect of this is an abomination to prudent management.

In carrying out this, there is need for citizens to cultivate the raw materials and working them up. Therefore, people should be turned by all possible means from idleness to remunerative professions instructed and encouraged in all kinds of inventions arts and trades and if necessary, instructors should be brought in from foreign lands for this.

This basically means we must create employment and stifle the importation of finished products, but add value locally.

Fourth; the inhabitants of the country should make every effort to get along with their domestic products to confine their luxuries to these alone and to do without foreign products as far as possible. If necessary, such foreign products should be exchanged for other wares and not for gold or silver.

Our Government must lead here and the imminent introduction of sectorial-based local content policy is a move in the right direction. I, however, think that industry and not Government needs to lead the effort. We must aggressively promote the Buy Zimbabwe philosophy.

Fifth; such foreign imports should be obtained in their unfinished form and worked up within the country, thus earning the wages of manufacturing there.

Except for important considerations, no importation should be allowed under any circumstances of commodities of which there is a sufficient supply of suitable quality at home.

In these matters, neither sympathy nor compassion should be shown to foreigners, kinsfolk, allies or enemies. All friendship ceases when it involves my own weakness and ruin. And this holds good even if domestic products are of poor quality or even higher priced. For it would be better to pay for an article two dollars which remains in the country than only one which goes out.

Lastly, opportunities should be sought night and day to sell the countrys superfluous goods to these foreigners in manufactured form for gold and silver if possible and their consumption must be sought in the farthest ends of the earth and developed in every possible way.

Regional integration is therefore key. The Sadc and Comesa markets for example, have a total of 600 million consumers who can buy our goods and services. We are also strategically placed in the centre of the region.

Now if this is not economic theory and practice simplified, I do not know what is.

I have always argued that to come up with economic policies is a simple matter; for its principles are universal and proven. What matters is the value system of leadership and the ability to implement, manage and allocate resources prudently.

It is the ability of skilled technicians, prudent accountants, ethical lawyers, experienced engineers and disciplined administrators, industrious farmers, good miners and creative entrepreneurs, all of which we have in abundance, both locally and in the Diaspora, which can unlock our potential.

Ours is to merely harness their skills and create the necessary space for them to do what they do best.

A compelling inclusive national vision which accepts the above principles as sacrosanct, combined with competent management and an alignment of consistent Government and well-thought out policies can truly unlock our full potential as a country, improve our quality of life and create wealth for ourselves and generations to come.

Musewe is an independent economist. He can be contacted at [emailprotected] These New Perspectives articles are coordinated by Lovemore Kadenge, president of the Zimbabwe Economics Society, e-mail: [emailprotected] and cell +263 772 382 852. This article was first published in the Zimbabwe Independent.

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Zimbabwe's economic recovery imperatives - The Herald

The middle classes in the Global South gained growing attention since the turn of the century, mainly through their rapid ascendancy in the Asian emerging economies. A side effect of the economic growth during these fat years was a relative increase of monetary income for a growing number of households.

This also benefited some lower income groups in resource-rich African economies. Many among these crossed the defined poverty levels, which were raised in late 2015 from $1.25 a person a day to $1.90. As some economists had suggested, from as little as $2 they were considered as entering the middle class.

The ominous term was rising like a phoenix from the ashes to characterise this trend. It added another label to the packaging of a neo-liberal discourse. By emphasising the free market paradigm as creating the best opportunities for all, it suggests that everyone benefits from a laissez-faire economy.

The debate has created sufficient awareness among scholars to explore the fact and fiction of the assumed transformative power of a middle class.But the middle class concept remained vague and limited to number crunching. The minimum threshold for entering a so-called middle class in monetary terms was critically vulnerable to a setback into impoverishment. After all, one sixth of the worlds population has to make a fragile living on $2 to $3 a day.

The African Development Bank played a defining role in promoting the debate. Using the $2 benchmark, it declared some 300 million Africans (about a third of the continents population) as being middle class in 2011. A year later it expanded its guesstimates to 300 million to 500 million. It also set them up as being very important.

Such monetary acrobatics aside, the analytical deficit which characterizes such classification is seriously problematic. The so-called middle class appears to be a muddling class. Rigorously explored differentiation remained largely absent not to mention any substantial class analysis. Professional activities, social status, cultural, ethnic or religious affinities or lifestyle as well as political orientations were hardly (if at all) considered.

But lived experiences matter if one is in search of how to define a middle class as an array of collective identities. Such necessary debate has in the meantime arrived in African studies. And the claim to ownership is also reflected in a just published volume that documents the need to deconstruct the mystification of the middle class being declared as the torchbearers of progress and development.

As alerted in a paper by UNU-WIDER, a new middle class as a meaningful social actor does require a collective identity in pursuance of common interests. Once upon a time this was called class-consciousness, based on a class in itself while acting as a class for itself. After all, which middle is occupied by an African middle class, if this is not positioned also in terms of class awareness and behaviour?

Politically such middle classes seem not as democratic as many of those singing their praises assume. Middle classes have shown ambiguities ranging from politically progressive engagement to a status-quo oriented, conservative approach to policies (if being political at all). African realities are not different.

In South Africa, the only consistency of the black middle class in historical perspective is its political inconsistency, as political scientist Roger Southall has suggested. They are no more likely to hold democratic values than other black South Africans. In fact, they are more likely to want government to secure higher order needs such as proper service delivery, infrastructure and rule of law according to their living circumstances rather than basic, survival needs.

It remains dubious that middle classes in Africa by their sheer existence promote economic growth. Their increase was mainly a limited result of the trickle down effects of the resource based economic growth rates during the first decade of the 21st century since then in decline. This had hardly economic potential stimulating productive investment that contributes towards sustainable economic growth.

Theres also little evidence of any correlation between economic growth and social progress, as a working paper of the IMF concludes. While during the fat years the poor partly became a little less poor, the rich got much richer. Even the African Development Bank admits that the income discrepancies as measured by the Gini-coefficient have increased, while six among the ten most unequal countries in the world are in Africa.

Nancy Birdsall, president emeritus of the Centre for Global Development, is among the most prominent advocates and protagonists of the middle class. She argues in support of a middle class rather than a pro-poor developmental orientation. But even she concedes that a sensible political economy analysis needs to differentiate between the rich with political leverage and the rest.

She remains nevertheless adamant that the middle class is an ingredient for good governance. This is based on her assumption that continued economic growth reduces inequalities. She further hypothesises that a growing middle class has a greater interest in an accountable government and supports a social contract, which taxes it as an investment into collective public goods to the benefit of also the poor. Dream on!

It remains necessary to put the record straight and lift the ideological haze. Already the United Nations Development Programmes Human Development 2013 report, which also promoted the middle class hype, predicted that 80% of middle classes would come from the global South by 2030, but only 2% from Sub-Saharan Africa.

Recent assessments claim that its not the middle of African societies which expands, but the lower and higher social groups.

According to a report by the Pew Research Centre only a few African countries had a meaningful increase of those in the middle-income category.

And the Economist, which earlier shifted its doomsday visions of a Hopeless Continent towards Africa Rising and the Continent of Hope, now concludes that Africans are mainly rich or poor but not middle class.

Fortunately, the debate has created sufficient awareness among scholars to explore the fact and fiction of the assumed transformative power of a middle class. This also includes the need to be sensitive towards ideological smokescreens which try to make us believe that a middle class is the cure. In reality, little has changed when it comes to leverage and control over social and political affairs.

The current engagement with the African middle class phenomenon is nevertheless anything but obsolete. Independent of their numbers, middle class members signify modified social relations. These deserve attention and analysis with the emphasis on social relations.

Cambridge Economist Gran Therborn stresses that discourse on class is always of social relevance. The boom of the middle class debate is therefore a remarkable symptom of our decade. Social class will remain a category of central importance, and bringing the class back in can do no harm.

Henning Melber is the author of The Rise of Africas Middle Class. Henning Melber, Extraordinary Professor, Department of Political Sciences, University of Pretoria

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

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It's time to decide what being middle class in Africa really means - Quartz

Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, the Minister of Science and Technology, says the present administration was putting measures in place towards moving the economy to prosperity.

Onu told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) at the sidelines of the ministrys Investment Forum in New York that one of such measures was the emphasis on science and technology-based economy.

Our economy, since independence, has relied on commodities; our economy has been resource-based and the problem with that is that we have relied so much on commodities.

And this is what has been creating problems for us in the country.

Whenever there is price drop in the price of commodities, then immediately, we feel the adverse effect, we enter into a recession; and we believe that this should not have happened.

President Muhammadu Buhari is determined that the nation must move away from having an economy that is resource-based to having an economy that is knowledge-based and innovation driven

And this is where Science and Technology can play and is playing very important role.

According to him, the Federal Government has already prepared the ground for the economy to now take off.

We have done a number of things to prepare the grounds for Nigeria to take-off from a resource-based economy to a knowledge-based economy.

The Science, Technology and Innovation Policy of the Federal Government came into existence in 1986.

But for 30 years, the lead organ the National Research and Innovation Council, which the President is Chairman, that lead organ never met for once in 30 years.

It took the Presidency of Muhammadu Buhari January of last year for this Council to meet for the first time in 30 years.

And last year we met three times and this year we already met once. But it is not the Council meeting that is really our goal.

But just to tell you that if you have a body and there is no head can the body move, it cant move; you need the head to control even body movement and other things.

Today, we are working to institutionalize this council and we are also working to make sure that there is a National Research and Innovation Fund.

He said no nation fund Science, Technology, Research and Innovation through budgetary provision alone but through extra-budgetary means, to meet the at least one per cent GDP-recommendation by AU.

According to him, however, the highest ratio to GDP that Nigeria had spent so far is 0.33 per cent.

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FG is moving economy on path of prosperity - Guardian (blog)

While industry praises action, environmentalists and officials stand opposed

KURE BEACH -- The Trump administration took the first steps Friday toward opening large portions of the Atlantic Ocean up to offshore drilling and seismic testing, although there is likely to be a lengthy review process before any energy production becomes reality.

Friday morning, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that directs the U.S. Department of the Interior to prioritize energy exploration and production, including streamlining permitting for seismic testing. Trump's executive order also called for agency to review the 2017-2022 offshore oil plan, which omitted the Atlantic and wide swaths of the Atlantic from permitted drilling areas.

In North Carolina, the order was met with praise by industry officials and apprehension by environmentalists and local officials who have long opposed drilling and seismic testing.Much of the previous opposition was lined with how drilling could impact the fishing and tourism industries widely viewed as bedrocks of the coastal economy.

Todd Miller, executive director of the N.C. Coastal Federation, said any impact is likely at least a decade away following the review of the five-year plan, exploratory process and then leasing. Still, Miller said, the eventual impacts could be major.

"You're bringing a heavy industry into an area that in the past has had more of a natural resource-based economy, so it's really mixing oil with water," he said.

Sierra Weaver, a senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center, said coastal residents and officials made up much of the opposition to Atlantic drilling during the previous review process and likely will again, in large measure because of their reliance on tourism.

"People don't want to visit beaches with oil on them and people don't want to visit towns with oil refineries in them," Weaver said. "People want to visit the same small coastal towns they've been vacationing in for decades."

Kure Beach was one of 32 North Carolina counties and municipalities -- including Wilmington -- that passed resolutions opposing offshore drilling, seismic testing or both. Mayor Emilie Swearingen said she would speak up during the upcoming process, as well.

"If there's an opportunity to weigh in on it," she said, "I will certainly do it. Under this administration, I don't see our new president really listening to the people that will be impacted by this."

Howard Braxton, the mayor of Topsail Beach, said his town would likely stand by its opposition to seismic testing, citing lingering questions about the loud noise's impact on dolphins and right whales.

"Right now," he said, "we're saying no until we know more about it."

On the other side of the issue, industry representatives such as David McGowan, the executive director of the N.C. Petroleum Council, praised Trump's executive order.

"Developing our abundant offshore energy resources in the Atlantic is a critical part of a robust, forward-looking energy policy that will secure our nation's energy future and help meet the energy needs of the consumers and businesses of North Carolina," McGowan wrote in an email.

In a 2013 report, N.C. State University economist Michael Walden estimated bringing drilling to the state would result in 1,100 jobs and $181 million of annual economic activity during the seven-year build-up period. Once the infrastructure is in place, Walden wrote, off-shore production could result in 17,000 jobs and generate $1.9 billion annually.

The research, Walden wrote, is very sensitive to shifts in the market and to the amount of oil that is truly available. He also noted that oil spills could result in about $83 million in annual damage -- primarily to coastal communities.

In a statement late Friday, N.C. Governor Roy Cooper said any action to open the coast up to drilling would need to come with steps to mitigate potential damage to the state's coast, wetlands and economy.

"Without this mitigation and a share in the financial benefits," Cooper wrote, "our state will not be assured of either an economic win or a safe environment."

Reporter Adam Wagner can be reached at 910-343-2389 or Adam.Wagner@GateHouseMedia.com.

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On NC coast, concern about Trump's offshore drilling order - StarNewsOnline.com

By Thomas Heath, The Washington Post

Is water the new oil of space?

It may be to Middle Eastern oil states such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, who are looking at space as a way to diversify out of the earthly benefits of fossil fuel.

"Middle East oil states are investing in satellite technology and trying to transform their domestic economies into digital economies and knowledge-based economies," said Tom James of Navitas Resources, an energy consultant based in London and Singapore.

As space colonizers such as Elon Musk and Jeffrey P. Bezos (owner of The Washington Post) aspire to shrink the cost of space travel, interest has picked up among oil states and others in how to power space settlements using water and minerals mined from the heavens.

Oil states are investing in companies and infrastructure that could one day mine minerals and water found on the moon and in asteroids.

"They are investing in it in order to attract business to the Middle East," James said. Oil states have large, empty spaces, relatively small populations and are located near the equator. The UAE has launched a multipronged effort to establish a space industry in which it has invested more than $5 billion, and that includes four satellites already in space and another due to launch in 2018.

"The Middle East is ideal for launching rockets and spaceships," James said. "It's the long-term solution. Oil and gas may not run forever. So they are looking to invest and be part of the new, future economy."

The water is critical. It can be turned into hydrogen to fuel the spaceship, oxygen for breathing or left untouched for drinking and everyday use. Requiring only a four-day trip and containing lots of ice, the moon is a prime candidate for resource extraction.

The interest in space mining and industrialization has picked up in recent years as Musk, Bezos and others push outward. Part of the key to unlocking affordable space travel and space industrialization is finding extraterrestrial materials such as water and minerals that do not have to be rocketed up from Earth.

Goldman Sachs wrote a recent research note explaining that "space mining could be more realistic than perceived." The bank in the same report said the storage of water as a fuel could be a "game changer" by creating orbital gas stations.

Most of the minerals will remain for use in space. Some rare, highly valuable commodities could be brought back to Earth. Goldman Sachs, for instance, was quoted in a 2012 interview with Planetary Resources that estimated that a football field-size asteroid could contain up to $50 billion worth of platinum.

"Asteroid mining could very quickly supply an emerging on-orbit manufacturing economy with nearly all the raw materials needed," according to the Goldman Sachs report.

The possibilities are beginning to register with the business sector.

"Within the next five years," James said, "mining and energy companies will start thinking about space mining before the shareholders start asking, 'What is your strategy?' and they answer, 'Oh, we don't have one.' "

The technology already exists. NASA launched a billion-dollar mission in September to vacuum materials from an 2,000-foot-wide asteroid called Bennu. The spacecraft is scheduled to sidle up to the asteroid in 2018, extend its arm and pull in its cargo. The ship will return to Earth a couple of years later.

But it is unclear whether mining on a wider scale is a real business, said Paul Chodas, an astronomer and asteroid expert with NASA.

The technology is there, but it's not simple. Asteroids travel through space at tens of thousands of miles per hour. Tracking asteroids and determining their composition is difficult.

"It's hard to determine which ones will have the most valuable minerals," Chodas said. He said it is doable, but "the question is cost-benefit. Is it worth the cost? We don't know yet. There is simply more work to be done to determine whether space mining is profitable. But it's promising."

Chris Lewicki is chief executive of Planetary Resources, a Seattle-area company studying asteroids to find one that is an appropriate candidate for mining.

Lewicki said the mining industry is a natural to make the first move when it comes to recovering space minerals because of its earthbound expertise. He foresees a small, robotic mining operation drilling for water on an asteroid in as soon as about 10 years.

"This is how [the mining industry] continues," Lewicki said. Mining asteroids "isn't a space project. It's a resource project. In the same way having minerals and materials are very important for our economy, space becomes a new medium for furthering that economy."

The regulatory phase got a major boost in 2015, when President Barack Obama signed legislation recognizing asteroid resource property rights.

The law recognizes the right of U.S. citizens to own asteroid resources and encourages the commercial exploration and utilization of resources from asteroids.

In addition to the UAE's space industry, Bloomberg News reports that the Saudis signed a pact with Russia in 2015 for cooperation on space exploration. Abu Dhabi is an investor in Richard Branson's space tourism venture, Virgin Galactic.

Several private companies, including Deep Space Industries, Planetary Resources and Shackleton Energy, are trying to crack the mining potential.

"If you have any significant human activity in space, then you are going to need resources," said Peter Stibrany, chief strategist and business developer for Deep Space Industries. "It will get too difficult to launch everything from the ground."

Deep Space Industries is four years old and living off seed money from investors and founders. Stibrany said the company is in the technology development stage and working to create delivery systems for lower orbit launches.

He said mining space resources faces what he calls a "four-dimensional problem."

The first two are technological and regulatory, which are being addressed.

"While the psychological barrier to mining asteroids is high, the actual financial and technological barriers are far lower," according to the Goldman Sachs report. "Prospecting probes can likely be built for tens of millions of dollars each, and Caltech has suggested an asteroid-grabbing spacecraft could cost $2.6 billion."

James pointed to "nano-sats," small satellites priced relatively inexpensively at $2 million each, far less than the hundreds of millions needed to place current satellites in orbit.

The third concern is the lack of a current market in asteroid resources. That should resolve itself when the space population hits critical mass, demanding infrastructure.

Then a business will follow if investors see that a reasonable return is likely over a reasonable amount of time with appropriate risks. That is the fourth hurdle.

"The end game," Stibrany said, "is that if you have 1,000 or 10,000 people living and working in space, there is no practical way that is going to work without using in-space resources."

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Space-mining may be only a decade away - Pocono Record

In Focus is our gift to the community. A way for us to help show our recognition for the people, businesses, and organizations that help make our city great. The team at KelownaNow.com is passionate about this community and the people that make it amazing. We want to show our friends, neighbours, family and colleagues that we notice them and the fabulous things that they do.

What is your name? Ian Atkinson.

Where are you from and how long have you lived in Kelowna? I am originally from Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. I moved to Kelowna 11 years ago, planned on only staying for a summer and never ended up leaving.

Who is your favourite person to spend time with and why? That is definitely my wife, Lisa. Weve had a lot of fun together over the last 10 years.

If you could go anywhere in the world right at this moment where would you go and why? Ive done quite a bit of travelling and Im always looking for somewhere new. Its cold and rainy here right now, so maybe somewhere hot and dry. Dubai is on my list to get to in the next couple of years, so I would go there.

What is your favourite local store in Kelowna and why? Underground Music on Ellis. Im a fan of vinyl and every time I go in there I find something I didnt know I needed, but suddenly cant live without.

What is your favourite activity? I love to travel and try to do it as much as possible. I have been to Europe a couple of times, Australia, New Zealand, Alaska, a bunch of different islands. My favourite part of travelling is when I can spend some time really living in a destination.

If you had to choose: pizza, tacos, or burgers? Pizza. Easy choice.

What is the most embarrassing thing that has happened to you? I crashed my car into my in-laws garage door a few years ago and everyone has been making fun of me ever since.

What is the most inspiring thing that has happened to you? I went to Fiji when I was 16 and through meeting some locals and seeing their lives, learned that concepts like friends, family and good jokes were universal, while material things, no matter how nice, won't make you happy.

Tell us your favourite childhood memory. My family had a little cabin in Northern Saskatchewan where we spent our summers. I have a lot great memories trekking through the woods with my friends, boating and sitting around the fire at night.

Where do you volunteer or give back to in the community? My wife is great at finding local organizations and causes that need help. I try to donate the skills I have, whether its print and web design, photography or just simple manual labour to whatever is important to her at the time.

If you could change one thing in the world what would it be? Just one thing? Thats a hard one. Id be interested to see if a resource based economy would work in the real world. I think that might have the potential to fix more than one problem.

What is your favourite activity in Kelowna? Im easy. Give me a nice waterfront patio on a sunny day and a cold drink with friends and Im happy.

Where would you sneak away to in Kelowna to spend some time alone? I like to go up to Postill Lake at least once a year. There is no internet or cell reception which is such a nice break to have these days.

Where would you like to see positive change in Kelowna and why? There is a huge challenge in Kelowna right now for young people and low income families to find affordable housing options. I dont know how someone with a minimum wage job or a single person supporting a family can possibly afford to live here.

What do you think makes Kelowna great? Kelowna has a great mix of people who have moved here from other places, and most of them seem pretty happy to be here.

What are 3 things on your bucket list? 1) Live in another country for a year 2) Vacation on a private yacht 3) Go into space (once the kinks are worked out and its like booking a cruise)

Tell us something that not everyone may know about you. Im terrible at basketball. Im 67 so everyone assumes Im great at it. Im not at all.

What is the name of your business/organization? Kelowna Photo Editing.

Why did you get into/start this business? Both of my parents are excellent photographers, so I got my start with photo editing a long time ago. For the last 11 years, I have been doing a lot of editing work with real estate and property photos. Personal photo touch-ups were the next step.

What is the goal of your business? Photos dont always turn out the way we expect. Luckily we live in the digital age where we have the technology to fix almost anything. My goal is to work on any photos that are important to people; weddings, portraits, vintage photos, real estate.

What has been your biggest struggle either in work or life? Finding the time to do all the things I want is always my biggest challenge. No matter how full my schedule is, there are always a few more projects I want to take on, but I still have to find time to sleep and get away from the computer screen a bit.

If you could start all over again would you do things the same or would things be different? I am happy with how things have turned out for me, so I think I would keep it the same.

What do you always find yourself saying? 'I can fix that', it doesnt always turn out to be true, but I usually give it a try.

If you could spend one whole day with anyone in the world who is currently alive, who would you select? Neil deGrasse Tyson. Im kind of a science geek and I think I could learn a few things in a day.

Why do you think it is important to shop locally? Coming from a smaller town, Ive seen how supporting local businesses benefits your own community. Shopping online or at the big box stores may save you a few dollars, but when you can put money into a local business, it ends up coming back your way.

What has been your proudest accomplishment? Tricking my wife into marrying me. Im still not sure how I pulled that off.

Give someone you think that deserves it a shout out and explain why! I want to give a shout out to my wife Lisa Taylor and her business partner Jewels Ferris. They have just moved into a new office space downtown on St. Paul and both continue to be very active members in Kelownas business community.

My choice for the KelownaNow In Focus spotlight is: I would like nominate Jennifer ' Jenner' Simpatico, who owns Petal and Vow, which specializes in Wedding and Event Floral Design. Jenner was one of the first people I met when I moved to Kelowna, we worked together for years and I think she does excellent work.

We encourage you to leave your comments and words of support below and submit your own nomination by clicking HERE. You are also welcome to submit a form of your own by clicking HERE. Thank you, Kelowna.

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In Focus | Ian Atkinson - KelownaNow