December 1997 Edition
DRUG RESEARCH
Last year, pharmaceutical companies in Canada pumped $665 million into drug development research. Nearly $400 million of that money funded clinical trials, in which new drugs and therapies are tested on patients prior to their formal approval. There are now twice as many Canadians enrolled in clinical trials as there were seven years ago. Last year clinical trials involving nearly 35,000 patients investigated 140 drugs across Canada. But, increasingly, there are countries where it is more cost-effective to conduct clinical trials. Eastern Europe is now attracting clinical research dollars because of the much cheaper costs of running trials there.
CELL PHONES
Canada's cellular telephone industry continued to record strong growth in 1996. There were 3,420,318 cell phone subscribers in Canada on December 31, 1996, up 32.1 per cent over the 1995 year-end figure of 2,589,780. Cell phone service providers reported annual revenues of $2.84 billion in 1996, an increase of 24.5 per cent compared with 1995 revenues.
PORTUGAL
Trade between Portugal and Canada is undergoing a transformation. In the past two years, sales of Canadian goods and services to Portugal have increased by nearly 300 per cent. In 1996, Canadian exports to Portugal totaled $99 million, while imports from Portugal reached $179 million. A co-operation agreement was signed recently between the Industrial Association of Portugal (AIP) and the Alliance of Manufacturers & Exporters Canada (AMEC). This agreement allows for much closer ties between these two major manufacturing associations and seeks to boost the competitiveness of their respective countries and to promote both exports and investment. Canadians can increasingly see Portugal as a gateway to the major European market. The Portuguese economy has the strongest growth rate of any European country in 1997, with GDP increasing by 2.5 per cent.
GROWTH
Since 1986, the home-computer market in the U.S. has grown from a $3-billion (U.S.) annual industry to more than $16-billion. Growth is fuelled by owners being accustomed to replacing their systems, on average, every 2.5 years. By contrast, people who buy a TV or VCR might not replace it for 11 years. It is suggested that adopting the economics of the personal-computer industry is the only way the consumer electronics industry can survive.
GENETICS
Two U.S. patents were granted recently for a process that puts vaccines directly into vegetables. But even before the patents were approved, the first clinical trials for edible vaccines received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Volunteers in Maryland will be fed raw potatoes that have been genetically engineered to trigger an immune reaction to the E. coli bacteria, a major cause of stomach upsets. A group in Mexico is putting the E. coli gene into bananas.
RETAIL
Despite increased consumer spending, a Consumer PulseCheck Survey states that Canadian retailers are losing sales because of high prices, out-of-stock items and slack service. While 32 per cent of consumers head out to a store with a specific purchase in mind, only 11 per cent actually find and buy what they want. Would-be buyers cite such hassles as high price (33 per cent of respondents), not finding the item (26 per cent), item not in stock, (16 per cent) and couldn't get service (7 per cent). A startling 20 per cent of consumers said they could not think of anything they liked about shopping.
RELAXATION
The Llama Therapeutic Group has opened North America's first llama retreat centre in B.C. Burnt-out business people are being invited to spend time without faxes, TVs or pagers. According to the founder, within 20 minutes of feeding, grooming and outfitting a llama for a trek, executive worry lines start to disappear, the tone of their voice changes and their breathing relaxes. Only $1,600 a time.
PROFITS
A new study by Gistics Inc. states that last year, 94 per cent of all CD-ROM publishers in the world failed to make a profit. The consulting firm gives two reasons: customers can't preview the expensive products before buying and the failure rate of CD-ROMs is high; Windows computers, it claims, have a 40 to 50 per cent failure rate when trying to run them.
INCOME
In 1996, spending from abroad on post-secondary education brought $1 billion into Canada in the form of tuition fees and living expenses. At the same time, spending by Canadian residents at universities and colleges abroad amounted to over $600 million. Sales abroad of legal services by law firms in Canada amounted to over $260 million including registration of patents and trademarks. The purchase of legal services from abroad approached $210 million. International management consulting produced some $215 million in revenues for Canadian providers. The estimate includes work funded by CIDA.
SITES
Two more sites are available on Strategis, Industry Canada's Web site, which are designed to give small businesses the tools they need to innovate, grow and create jobs. For growth-oriented firms, there's a page providing tips on how to get risk capital at strategis.ic.gc.ca/growth. Another specializes in steps to competitiveness and may be found at strategis.ic.gc.ca/steps.
LABOUR FORCE
So far this decade, there has been extraordinary growth in the number of Canadians who are self-employed. Between 1989 and 1996, the self-employed accounted for over three-quarters of job growth. The number of people who became their own boss surged 25% during this period, while the number of paid employees increased only 1%. As a result, the self-employed now account for 18% of all workers, up from 14% in 1989 and 12% in 1976. While the likelihood of being self-employed has grown considerably over the last 20 years for both sexes, the rate of growth has been stronger for women. While men represented about 74% of the self-employed in 1976, they now represent about two-thirds.
FACILITIES
In the U.S. national park at Delaware Gap, Pa., Washington has built a two-hole outhouse for $333,000 (U.S.). Although critics have attacked its cost, supporters note the state-of-the-art structure was the work of more than a dozen designers, architects and engineers and it is earthquake-proof.
STANDARDS
Canadian businesses can now check out thousands of Canadian and international standards on the Internet. The Standards Council of Canada has teamed up with the Open Text Corp of Waterloo, Ont., to provide quick on-line information such as manufacturing specifications for companies interested in exporting their products. Canadian businesses can also provide comment and recommendations on new standards. The council's Web site is www.scc.ca.
PROFITABILITY
Among Canada's larger enterprises, the most profitable goods producers in 1996 were firms engaged in the production of chemical fertilizers (excluding potash), and explosives. The median rate of return was 17.3%. In second place in the 1996 rankings were motor vehicle parts and accessories manufacturers (14.7%). The least profitable goods producers were pulp and paper manufacturers (0.9%) and fish and other seafood processors (1.9%). Among financial institutions, the most profitable in 1996 were independent investment dealers (26.5%) and investment dealers that are subsidiaries of banks (15.7%).
FEATHERS
A U.S. federal researcher, pondering new ways to use chicken feathers--a poultry rendering plant can process half a million pounds a week--has suggested using the absorbent material to make disposable diapers. Currently, ground-up chicken feathers are used to grow mushrooms or are fed back to chickens as a protein supplement.
WATER
U.S. companies selling bottled water may legally use the terms "Mountain fresh" and "Glacier pure" even if their product has been nowhere near a mountain or a glacier.
CLEAN-UP
Opportunities exist for Canadian companies in the area of environmental clean-up. The sharp resurgence in Gulf of Mexico oil and gas activity has been accompanied by the challenge of disposing of a large number of less economically viable, older-generation wells. More than 3,000 platforms currently dot the U.S. federal waters in the Gulf, and the looming cost of removing the platforms, plugging and abandoning the wells and cleaning up the ocean floor has been estimated by the U.S. Department of Environment at about $US5 billion -- $US2.9 billion for platform renewal, US$1.4 billion for plugging and abandoning, and $US600 million for site clearance.
SMALL BUSINESS
According to the Business Development Bank of Canada, small businesses now employ half of Canada's private sector workers. They also generate almost 43 per cent of the private sector output and create 90 per cent of the new jobs.
HARDWARE
Canadian hardware manufacturers are highly export-oriented. In recent years, foreign shipments have been equivalent to as much as 73% of factory shipments. At the same time, imports of information technology products are substantially greater than domestic production. Canada incurred a trade deficit of $18.6 billion in these products in 1995. Few countries - not even the U.S. - consistently maintain a trade surplus in information technology products. Moreover, information technology imports reflect investment in cutting edge technologies by Canadian corporations to maintain their competitiveness in international markets.
TEACHING
Though retirements and burnout will open up new teaching jobs after the year 2000, there will be a lot of competition for these jobs according to a Statscan study. Teachers specializing in mathematics, the sciences and certain technical subjects have the best prospects, even in the current tight job market. Assuming a retirement age of 60, about 61 per cent of Canadian elementary and secondary school teachers--or 211,000 out of 347,000 teachers--will retire between now and 2015. There are currently more than 35,000 teachers available for full-time work.
FLOWERS
After the Princess of Wales died, Colombia's flower industry saw a 20 per cent leap in the sales of its blooms to Europe.
INFORMATION
Across North America, long-distance directory assistance is handing out bad information with increasing frequency. The problem, according to the Washington Post, is that as local phone companies begin to compete against long-distance carriers and each other, many are refusing to share updated lists of customers' phone numbers.
MEMORY
Researchers at British Telecom and MIT are working on "intelligent glasses." When confronted by a familiar but nameless face, the spectacles will automatically print the name above the person's head in a way only the wearer can see, or whisper it into an ear.
QUOTES
"Why, sir, there is every possibility that you will soon be able to tax it."--British scientist Michael Faraday (1791-1867) when asked by a politician about the usefulness of electricity.
Thank you for reading the A & A Economic News Digest. For more information visit our website www.aacb.com or contact A & A Contract Customs Brokers Ltd. at strehler@aacb.com.
Past issues of the A&A Economic News Digest can be found at http://www.aacb.com/publications/ed/index.asp
Last year, pharmaceutical companies in Canada pumped $665 million into drug development research. Nearly $400 million of that money funded clinical trials, in which new drugs and therapies are tested on patients prior to their formal approval. There are now twice as many Canadians enrolled in clinical trials as there were seven years ago. Last year clinical trials involving nearly 35,000 patients investigated 140 drugs across Canada. But, increasingly, there are countries where it is more cost-effective to conduct clinical trials. Eastern Europe is now attracting clinical research dollars because of the much cheaper costs of running trials there.
CELL PHONES
Canada's cellular telephone industry continued to record strong growth in 1996. There were 3,420,318 cell phone subscribers in Canada on December 31, 1996, up 32.1 per cent over the 1995 year-end figure of 2,589,780. Cell phone service providers reported annual revenues of $2.84 billion in 1996, an increase of 24.5 per cent compared with 1995 revenues.
PORTUGAL
Trade between Portugal and Canada is undergoing a transformation. In the past two years, sales of Canadian goods and services to Portugal have increased by nearly 300 per cent. In 1996, Canadian exports to Portugal totaled $99 million, while imports from Portugal reached $179 million. A co-operation agreement was signed recently between the Industrial Association of Portugal (AIP) and the Alliance of Manufacturers & Exporters Canada (AMEC). This agreement allows for much closer ties between these two major manufacturing associations and seeks to boost the competitiveness of their respective countries and to promote both exports and investment. Canadians can increasingly see Portugal as a gateway to the major European market. The Portuguese economy has the strongest growth rate of any European country in 1997, with GDP increasing by 2.5 per cent.
GROWTH
Since 1986, the home-computer market in the U.S. has grown from a $3-billion (U.S.) annual industry to more than $16-billion. Growth is fuelled by owners being accustomed to replacing their systems, on average, every 2.5 years. By contrast, people who buy a TV or VCR might not replace it for 11 years. It is suggested that adopting the economics of the personal-computer industry is the only way the consumer electronics industry can survive.
GENETICS
Two U.S. patents were granted recently for a process that puts vaccines directly into vegetables. But even before the patents were approved, the first clinical trials for edible vaccines received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Volunteers in Maryland will be fed raw potatoes that have been genetically engineered to trigger an immune reaction to the E. coli bacteria, a major cause of stomach upsets. A group in Mexico is putting the E. coli gene into bananas.
RETAIL
Despite increased consumer spending, a Consumer PulseCheck Survey states that Canadian retailers are losing sales because of high prices, out-of-stock items and slack service. While 32 per cent of consumers head out to a store with a specific purchase in mind, only 11 per cent actually find and buy what they want. Would-be buyers cite such hassles as high price (33 per cent of respondents), not finding the item (26 per cent), item not in stock, (16 per cent) and couldn't get service (7 per cent). A startling 20 per cent of consumers said they could not think of anything they liked about shopping.
RELAXATION
The Llama Therapeutic Group has opened North America's first llama retreat centre in B.C. Burnt-out business people are being invited to spend time without faxes, TVs or pagers. According to the founder, within 20 minutes of feeding, grooming and outfitting a llama for a trek, executive worry lines start to disappear, the tone of their voice changes and their breathing relaxes. Only $1,600 a time.
PROFITS
A new study by Gistics Inc. states that last year, 94 per cent of all CD-ROM publishers in the world failed to make a profit. The consulting firm gives two reasons: customers can't preview the expensive products before buying and the failure rate of CD-ROMs is high; Windows computers, it claims, have a 40 to 50 per cent failure rate when trying to run them.
INCOME
In 1996, spending from abroad on post-secondary education brought $1 billion into Canada in the form of tuition fees and living expenses. At the same time, spending by Canadian residents at universities and colleges abroad amounted to over $600 million. Sales abroad of legal services by law firms in Canada amounted to over $260 million including registration of patents and trademarks. The purchase of legal services from abroad approached $210 million. International management consulting produced some $215 million in revenues for Canadian providers. The estimate includes work funded by CIDA.
SITES
Two more sites are available on Strategis, Industry Canada's Web site, which are designed to give small businesses the tools they need to innovate, grow and create jobs. For growth-oriented firms, there's a page providing tips on how to get risk capital at strategis.ic.gc.ca/growth. Another specializes in steps to competitiveness and may be found at strategis.ic.gc.ca/steps.
LABOUR FORCE
So far this decade, there has been extraordinary growth in the number of Canadians who are self-employed. Between 1989 and 1996, the self-employed accounted for over three-quarters of job growth. The number of people who became their own boss surged 25% during this period, while the number of paid employees increased only 1%. As a result, the self-employed now account for 18% of all workers, up from 14% in 1989 and 12% in 1976. While the likelihood of being self-employed has grown considerably over the last 20 years for both sexes, the rate of growth has been stronger for women. While men represented about 74% of the self-employed in 1976, they now represent about two-thirds.
FACILITIES
In the U.S. national park at Delaware Gap, Pa., Washington has built a two-hole outhouse for $333,000 (U.S.). Although critics have attacked its cost, supporters note the state-of-the-art structure was the work of more than a dozen designers, architects and engineers and it is earthquake-proof.
STANDARDS
Canadian businesses can now check out thousands of Canadian and international standards on the Internet. The Standards Council of Canada has teamed up with the Open Text Corp of Waterloo, Ont., to provide quick on-line information such as manufacturing specifications for companies interested in exporting their products. Canadian businesses can also provide comment and recommendations on new standards. The council's Web site is www.scc.ca.
PROFITABILITY
Among Canada's larger enterprises, the most profitable goods producers in 1996 were firms engaged in the production of chemical fertilizers (excluding potash), and explosives. The median rate of return was 17.3%. In second place in the 1996 rankings were motor vehicle parts and accessories manufacturers (14.7%). The least profitable goods producers were pulp and paper manufacturers (0.9%) and fish and other seafood processors (1.9%). Among financial institutions, the most profitable in 1996 were independent investment dealers (26.5%) and investment dealers that are subsidiaries of banks (15.7%).
FEATHERS
A U.S. federal researcher, pondering new ways to use chicken feathers--a poultry rendering plant can process half a million pounds a week--has suggested using the absorbent material to make disposable diapers. Currently, ground-up chicken feathers are used to grow mushrooms or are fed back to chickens as a protein supplement.
WATER
U.S. companies selling bottled water may legally use the terms "Mountain fresh" and "Glacier pure" even if their product has been nowhere near a mountain or a glacier.
CLEAN-UP
Opportunities exist for Canadian companies in the area of environmental clean-up. The sharp resurgence in Gulf of Mexico oil and gas activity has been accompanied by the challenge of disposing of a large number of less economically viable, older-generation wells. More than 3,000 platforms currently dot the U.S. federal waters in the Gulf, and the looming cost of removing the platforms, plugging and abandoning the wells and cleaning up the ocean floor has been estimated by the U.S. Department of Environment at about $US5 billion -- $US2.9 billion for platform renewal, US$1.4 billion for plugging and abandoning, and $US600 million for site clearance.
SMALL BUSINESS
According to the Business Development Bank of Canada, small businesses now employ half of Canada's private sector workers. They also generate almost 43 per cent of the private sector output and create 90 per cent of the new jobs.
HARDWARE
Canadian hardware manufacturers are highly export-oriented. In recent years, foreign shipments have been equivalent to as much as 73% of factory shipments. At the same time, imports of information technology products are substantially greater than domestic production. Canada incurred a trade deficit of $18.6 billion in these products in 1995. Few countries - not even the U.S. - consistently maintain a trade surplus in information technology products. Moreover, information technology imports reflect investment in cutting edge technologies by Canadian corporations to maintain their competitiveness in international markets.
TEACHING
Though retirements and burnout will open up new teaching jobs after the year 2000, there will be a lot of competition for these jobs according to a Statscan study. Teachers specializing in mathematics, the sciences and certain technical subjects have the best prospects, even in the current tight job market. Assuming a retirement age of 60, about 61 per cent of Canadian elementary and secondary school teachers--or 211,000 out of 347,000 teachers--will retire between now and 2015. There are currently more than 35,000 teachers available for full-time work.
FLOWERS
After the Princess of Wales died, Colombia's flower industry saw a 20 per cent leap in the sales of its blooms to Europe.
INFORMATION
Across North America, long-distance directory assistance is handing out bad information with increasing frequency. The problem, according to the Washington Post, is that as local phone companies begin to compete against long-distance carriers and each other, many are refusing to share updated lists of customers' phone numbers.
MEMORY
Researchers at British Telecom and MIT are working on "intelligent glasses." When confronted by a familiar but nameless face, the spectacles will automatically print the name above the person's head in a way only the wearer can see, or whisper it into an ear.
QUOTES
"Why, sir, there is every possibility that you will soon be able to tax it."--British scientist Michael Faraday (1791-1867) when asked by a politician about the usefulness of electricity.
Thank you for reading the A & A Economic News Digest. For more information visit our website www.aacb.com or contact A & A Contract Customs Brokers Ltd. at strehler@aacb.com.
Past issues of the A&A Economic News Digest can be found at http://www.aacb.com/publications/ed/index.asp
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