Almost 200 people got together for the the conference “The Promise of Space Resources: a Luxembourg Public-Private Initiative” in New York yesterday, where Deputy Prime Minister Etienne Schneider elaborated on the the Luxembourg SpaceResources.lu initiative and the goals behind it.
Organised by the Luxembourg Trade & Investment Office in New York, on behalf of the Ministry of Economy, with support from the American Industrial Acquisition Corporation.
The Deputy Prime Minister was joined by corporate experts from the space industry and from private equity investment funds who provided insights into investment opportunities and financing for space exploration, including Jeanne Crauser, Luxembourg’s consul general in New York, Rick Tumlinson, founder of the New Worlds Institute, and Mario Grotz, DG for the Research, Intellectual Property and New Technologies Directorate at the Ministry of the Economy.
“Luxembourg’s strategy is built on support for advanced research activities and technological capabilities, drawing on the country’s existing expertise in the space sector and its ongoing strategy of economic diversification into future-oriented high-tech industries,” said Deputy Prime Minister Schneider.
“As a world renowned financial business centre, Luxembourg offers incentives for private sector companies seeking to develop space mining opportunities. Our financial regulatory system fully supports venture capital and private equity investment within a wider European framework.”
During his presentation, Mario Grotzmade said “We already have a whole scope of competences around space in Luxembourg and we have been focused on commercial space activities since the beginning.
“Now, our main objective is to encourage the private sector to develop technologies needed for space resources exploration and utilisation. These technologies have the potential to create short term revenues in space and terrestrial applications and will lead to completely new business models in the mid and in the long term.”
During two panel discussions, corporate and institutional experts in space exploration and private equity investment debated on the two subjects of “Space markets and corporate strategies” and “Connecting investors and space explorers”.
