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BELL SEEKS SPACE SECTOR FUNDING
TREASURY minister Allan Bell will ask Tynwald for £955,000 to fund the promotion of the Island's space industry at its next sitting on January 17.
Mr Bell believes the time is right to target space and satellite-related businesses and raise the profile of the Isle of Man as a good location to set up operations.
He said the monetary benefits that Treasury had already derived from the sector, outweighed the amount requested for marketing.
'We have been involved in this industry for two or three years and have developed relationships within specific areas. Two years ago I created a zero rate of tax for space-related activities, to test the market, to see if we could attract business to the Island.
'I followed that up with a visit to New York and Houston, to meet representatives of the space industry, satellite operators and senior personnel at NASA. It became clear that we were seen as major new players in the space business,' he said.
He added that four of the world's largest satellite operators were now registered in the Island, including the largest, SES Global, that opened an office last month. He added that a confirmed transaction involving five satellites, would see 1bn euros flowing through the Island's banking system.
The money will be spent on attendance at space-related seminars and fighting off competition from other jurisdictions, such as Gibraltar, Bermuda and Singapore.
Mr Bell said: 'The money will be spent attending key seminars over a two year period. We will also be working with the space university in Strasbourg and promoting the Island to space companies in America. There are a number of key marketing opportunities at the various space-related exhibitions around the world and it's our intention to be aggressively represented at every opportunity.'
Mr Bell said the industry would not create large numbers of jobs but would generate increased incomes for the banks, which would in turn increase Treasury's tax receipts.
He said: 'It's not an industry that's going to create a large number of jobs, it is more to do with the financing of the various forms of space activity. From next year we will have a zero rate of corporate tax and the banks will be the only tax payers left in the Island. All this space money, amounting to several billion pounds, will generate tax revenues from the banks.'
He also said that space tourism would be another potentially lucrative area for the Island in years to come.
Mr Bell said that the dispute with Bermuda over satellite slot registration had been won by the Isle of Man. A 'war chest' of more than half a million pounds had been set aside to contest a legal battle with Bermuda over the issue.
He said treasury had overturned the legal action without using all the money and the remainder had been returned to Tynwald.
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Thursday 09 February 2012
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