00:00Well, this week we've been bringing you interviews from the World Investment Forum in Doha,
00:05where they've been talking about investment and how developing countries can benefit from the growing space economy.
00:10I spoke to Dr. Iona Petrescu, an economist, a space economist, I should say, and former finance minister of Romania,
00:17and she talked about her initiatives and the opportunities for young people in the space ecosystem.
00:23I am very much interested in how adolescent democracies, as I call them,
00:28make decisions about investments and how governments in these countries are making decisions about investments.
00:33So I just wrote a book about public policy in adolescent democracy,
00:37which is coming out this December at Emerald Publishing,
00:41and I am talking about the way that countries that have characteristics of full democracies
00:49and characteristics of autocracies make decisions about investments and not only.
00:54So I was very much interested to meet with some representatives here of some developing countries with these characteristics
01:01and see what are they doing and how they make these decisions.
01:07But you once ran Romania's finances, and now you study the economics of space.
01:14So I wonder if that comes into it, too.
01:16I wonder what a former finance minister sees in space that engineers might miss.
01:23Yes, I think space can help policy in many, many ways, and especially finance ministers.
01:31For example, we can use satellite information to collect more taxes in property taxation
01:38because satellites can give us more information about the value of a property.
01:43We can reduce the government expenditures without actually cutting subsidies or benefits
01:49because, for example, we can check better whether subsidies are going to the right beneficiary
01:56using satellite data and not paying inspectors to go on the ground.
02:01So I think there are a lot of benefits that space can bring to earthly problems.
02:08So you have an eye on developing nations and those that want to be part of the new space race.
02:12But China is already investing heavily in space, from satellites to moon missions.
02:19Are other governments and investors doing enough to unlock all that potential?
02:25That's a very good question.
02:26I would ask, though, not if they're doing enough, but if they're doing the right things.
02:31I've been interviewing a lot of representatives in governments of these emerging space nations.
02:37And it matters what type of policies they're taking.
02:43For example, the successful ones, they're looking at the existing ecosystems.
02:49They're looking at industries that they already have, which are close enough to space,
02:54such that they can take those industries and the companies in those industries and spin them in.
03:01They're also the successful ones.
03:03They are interested in building an ecosystem in space, not necessarily building demand.
03:08It means that investing in companies that have connection with each other and they will create a supply chain,
03:16they would create these ecosystems.
03:18And I think a third thing that emerging space nations are doing that is the right thing,
03:24is really promoting internationally their new space economy and their new space companies.
03:31Because obviously, if they are emerging space nations, the rest of the world don't know about them.
03:37And it's extremely important for the government to make an effort to really let know the possible partners
03:45and investors abroad about the existence of this space ecosystem in their own country.
