Trips abroad from North Dakota to the Netherlands have helped show Dwight Bramble, the City of Estevan's Economic Development Coordinator, that there is plenty for Estevan to be optimistic about in the coming year. With new technologies, and possibly new foreign investment ahead, among other things, it promises to be an exciting 2020 for Estevan.

Bramble recenty spoke at the Estevan Chamber's first coffee talk of 2020 to bring local business owners up to date on the state of Estevan's economic future, as well as the plan for its present. According to Bramble, there are plenty of promising signs for both.

"Our economic development board has just about completed our strategic plan for 2020 and beyond," he said. "That will bring a little more structure and guidance to where we want to go and what we're doing. We're excited because the stakeholders we're involved with, everybody including the community residents, everyone is excited and willing to get involved in the activities which we hope to undertake to move the community forward."

In the short term, this will mean bringing interested parties to Estevan to see for themselves just how much economic potential lies in the Southeast. After a recent trip by Bramble to Vietnam, two Vietnamese nationals traveled to Estevan to view the workings of the economy here for themeslves.

"They came down to meet with our economic development board," said Bramble. "I took the opportunity to take them to visit the Westmorland Coal Mine and to visit our carbon capture facility down at Boundary Dam."

The earlier trip to Vietnam presented Bramble an opportunity to show off Estevan for possible investment, thus the visit from the Vietnamese nationals. Their interest was mainly in the coal and oil sectors of Estevan.

Moving forward, 2020 may be the year we begin to see more serious talks on the subject of solar power. "We've had lots of interest in different types of renewable energy," Bramble said. "You know, solar, geothermal... wind, other types. Of course Estevan is the sunshine capital of Canada, so if all goes well for us with regards to solar power opportunities... we are entertaining and engaging interest."

Bramble's next trip, coming up shortly, will be just across the border to North Dakota. The international trips are taken at the discretion of the city, so there are no concrete plans for another, but Bramble certainly wouldn't rule them out.

"If from the city's standpoint and the economic development board's standpoint we feel we can get value from it," he said, "and if it's in our budget, then yeah we would look at it."

City Council meets for the first time in 2020 on January 13.