 |
Home :: About EDA :: News and Events :: Funding Opportunities :: Resources :: Research/Tools :: Contacts :: Search
|
Remarks of U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce For Economic Development David A. Sampson - International Economic Development Council
| ||
| Thank you Charles (Shorter - Ernst & Young) for the kind introduction.
It is a great pleasure to be with you all in Oakland today.
During my first visit to Oakland a few months ago, I visited one of our economic
development partners -- Advancing California's Emerging Technologies (ACET).
In August, Commerce Secretary Don Evans also visited ACET and presented Sam
Doctors with a $6,000,000 grant, the largest single grant the Commerce Department
has made since the beginning of the Bush Administration. On the grounds of the
former Alameda Naval Air Station, EDA is partnering with ACET to expand their
Bio Tech Incubator.
EDA is proud of its active partnership with the IEDC and our other economic
development partners. The partnership approach to economic development is key
to effectively and efficiently addressing the economic development challenges
facing our nation's communities. EDA will continue to build upon its partnerships with private sector firms, local development officials, Economic Development Districts, University Centers, community-based organizations, private capital markets, and other local, state, and federal agencies. We will continue to look for new and innovative ways to spur economic development. Today, we meet at a time of great national concern. Potential further terrorist attacks, trouble in the Middle East, a weakened economy, and corporate credibility issues have shaken our confidence. To be sure, many Americans are uncertain about the future and President Bush understands that. But, ladies and gentleman, as President Bush recently said, "The foundation for economic growth in America is strong." President Bush led the way in creating a new ethic of responsibility in America's corporate community. In July I was honored to join the President in the East Room as he signed legislation that exposes and punishes acts of corruption, moves corporate accounting out of the shadows, and protects small investors and pension holders. The President is also focused on assuring the Nation's taxpayers that their government is pursuing a budget based on fiscal responsibility. As President Bush said last week, "If you overspend, it creates a fundamental weakness in the foundation of economic growth." The President is committed to working with Congress to make sure they hear the message -- the message of fiscal responsibility. This means that we must set priorities. The most immediate threat to our country is from those who wish to do us harm. And so our most important priority, when it comes to budgeting and time and effort, is to protect American citizens. The President is concerned about the economic security of every American. But he's also optimistic about the future, because the fundamentals for growth in the American economy are strong. " Inflation and interest rates are low; " Auto and retail sales are strong; " New home sales are setting records; " Wages are rising faster than inflation; and " Consumer spending remains strong. Our Nation is on track for sustained economic growth. As President Bush said at the Waco Economic Summit, the first three quarters of his administration were marked by recession. The last 3 quarters have shown growth. The trend is moving in the right direction, but we must do more to ensure strong growth and that every American who wants a job can get one. However, the President won't be satisfied until every American who wants a job can find a job, and all Americans have economic security. One reason the recession was one of the shortest and shallowest in history was because the President's tax cuts were well timed. The tax cuts will create 800,000 new jobs this year and they pumped $40 billion back into the pockets of consumers just when they needed it most. As the President continues to pursue his agenda to create jobs; open foreign markets to American goods; help Americans save, invest and keep more of their money; and foster a new ethic of corporate responsibility; our economy will continue to grow. I believe, as I know all of you believe, that development of strong regional economies is imperative to rebuilding confidence and prosperity for all our citizens. We simply must press forward. Everyone in this room, including me, has our work cut out for us during the coming months. We must work together in new partnerships and pursue market driven development strategies to enhance employment opportunities and long-term prosperity. Americans expect and deserve no less. EDA has been working hard to maximize the economic impact of our existing resources to help regions attract engines of economic growth. In Washington and in our regional offices, we are working hard to generate more economic impact per dollar of input than any other federal agency involved in economic development. To accomplish this, EDA has adopted an economic development strategy based on enhancing regional competitiveness, fostering innovation, increasing productivity and developing industry clusters. The goal of economic development is to achieve a high and rising standard of living. Every EDA investment - indeed every economic development program or initiative must meet the test of moving local/regional economies to a higher level, more diverse, or stabilized economy. In other words, our goal is to promote structural economic change/diversification, to achieve that high and rising standard of living. There are four measures to gauge structural economic change/diversification - all quantifiable. Here I am indebted to Rutgers University for their work on this topic through an EDA funded research grant. These measures interpret forces that create an increasingly sophisticated and technical regional economy. The first measure; economic diversification, is associated with increased competitiveness and stability and thereby contributes to structural change. The second measure, an increase in earnings per worker, enhances individual well-being and often fosters a positive change in economic structure. The third measure views the progression of economic stages - movement from more basic to more skilled industries - as indicative of positive structural change. A final measure correlates investments that result in reduced import dependence with positive structural economic change. Import dependence refers to the ratio of imported to local jobs. Reductions in import dependence are normally accompanied by developing stronger inter-industry linkages, value-added processing, and an increase in multiplier effects. These are the indicators, the measures of economic diversification. So, what strategy must we pursue to promote structural economic change and diversification? President Bush has said, "The role of government is to create conditions in which jobs are created, in which people can find work." Not withstanding the demands placed on our budget by national and homeland security efforts, we believe there is a significant federal role in economic development activities. However, the country needs a smarter federal effort, both in the sense of what is expected of it and in the sense of how it is designed and managed. Expectations profoundly influence how we conduct economic development efforts and when expectations are unfulfilled they lead to disappointment, disillusionment and erosion of credibility. It's easy to set high and lofty goals for what we want to accomplish, but unless those goals are quantifiable, and achievable, our credibility is eroded. None of us in the profession of economic development can afford that. One policy goal is to increase the productivity and wealth of the American economy. After more than a decade of generally successful business efforts to compete effectively in a global economy, it is still important that public policies encourage and strengthen American firms to become more productive and profitable. A second policy goal is to ensure that all communities share in economic opportunity. Even after a decade of dramatic expansion of the national economy, some communities still have chronically high unemployment and low incomes. It is important for government to do what it can to enable all Americans to have the opportunity to participate more fully in the American dream and national prosperity. So the difficulty lies not in the goals of federal economic development activities, but in our expectations of what can actually be achieved. We must never lose sight of the fact that it is market forces, rather than the decisions of government officials that are the primary force driving both the overall rate of economic growth in our 10.4 trillion dollar economy, and the geographic location of economic activities. Economic development programs cannot counteract these powerful forces but they can work in tandem with them. Economic development programs can help private businesses build links with institutions for collaboration, like schools, universities, community colleges and research institutions. They can assure that public infrastructure is available and that public services are provided to attract economic growth. They can help emerging businesses navigate complex regulatory systems. When the market place bypasses certain geographic areas or when regional economies are experiencing structural economic dislocation, economic development programs can help build a more favorable business climate to attract private capital investment. And most of all, economic development can help promote competitiveness, innovation, and increased productivity. Over time these economic development activities can help to influence both the rate and location of economic change. But federal agencies cannot undertake these activities on their own, especially in a highly diverse and decentralized economy. Without a sustained concerted effort by states and communities themselves, federal efforts will have little or no impact. Communities can attain real economic improvement, even if they are currently experiencing economic distress. But first they must mobilize a broad based and well-conceived effort to increase economic competitiveness. This effort must generally be consistent with market forces and take advantage of the opportunities that markets create. Finally this effort must be sustained over many years - perhaps even decades. Helping such communities get started and contributing to their momentum are realistic goals for the federal government. But to increase overall wealth and to help communities improve economic conditions, the federal effort must be designed and managed more efficiently. That's why I have proposed the most sweeping reorganization of EDA in its history. We must align resources, flatten the organizational structure, and move resources to the field where the interaction with our partners takes place. We must ensure that YOU have access to the best economic development research and market trends available. Economic development programs must help states and localities Learn through better information, enable them to Leverage all available resources, and Link scattered initiatives to serve local needs. I call these, the "The Three "L"s of federal economic development efforts: Learn, Leverage and Link The economic reality of the 21st century economy is that higher levels of private capital investment drive the creation of higher-skill, higher-wage jobs. Therefore, our mission at EDA is to help foster a positive business environment among America's distressed communities - both rural and urban - to attract private capital investment to produce goods and services and increase productivity thereby providing higher-skill, higher-wage job opportunities. The challenge for today's state and local officials and policy makers is to fashion strategies for each state to ensure they are positioned not to just compete, but to thrive in the new economy. Fortunately they can draw on what we already know about promoting sustained regional economic growth and prosperity. EDA funded research done by ICF International in 1998, which has identified four basic rules for economic development in the 21st century. Rule number one: Think regionally to compete globally. Competing in the global market requires the resources of all businesses, academic institutions, and communities within a region. That is today's reality. More and more, certain regions tend to have specialized knowledge and capacity that is of a scale and form that distinguishes them from other areas. Industry no longer cares about political boundaries - except when they're a barrier to business. What they do care about is competitive advantages. And that's where EDA and all of us in economic development come into play. We must cooperate regionally, think regionally to avoid fragmentation of resources, and build a strong economic platform for growth. So thinking regional should be the key point of departure for defining economic development needs and goals. Rule number two: industry clusters drive regional performance. Industry clusters are groupings of industries, suppliers and supporting institutions within a region that export to national and global markets. They are a set of industries that have a lot in common in terms of technology, worker skills, finance, and logistical inputs. As a result, they tend to congregate near one another, sharing innovative practices and economies of scale. Industrial clusters are very important to a region because while they typically account for only 25% of the employment base, their economic multipliers account for much of the balance of the region's employment. This makes them the driving force of economic development. Rule number three: Economic input-advantage fuels cluster competition. The rise in competitive clusters is due to the ability of regions to provide them with distinctive sources of economic input advantage - for example: adequate financing, available infrastructure, advanced communications, and most importantly, a skilled workforce. In other words, clusters won't come to, or expand in, regions that fail to provide at least one input advantage. Finally, rule number four: Collaboration achieves economic advantage. If industrial clusters are the center of action in the global economy, how do they become, and how do they remain, competitive? By collaborating. Citizen leaders, both public and private, must agree on a long-term development strategy that creates a competitive climate. They need to agree on the investments in regional assets ... education ... research ... physical infrastructure ... institutions for collaboration and quality of life over time. Only with such a strategy in place, will you attract the private investment and employment that leads to a high and rising standard of living. Only then will you build a "platform for economic growth." In the next generation economy that regions are seeking to build, the hallmark of vitality will be the agility of institutions and their leaders to recognize and to collaborate in the improvement of existing - or creation of new-sources of economic input advantages. Communities that fail to realize this, that fail to come up with a long-term development strategy, will either decline, or they will stagnate. Our job at EDA ... working with you, is to capitalize on this market-based strategy to seize the economic development opportunities of tomorrow. We believe this competition based, regional approach to development works. It's based on solid research and reflects the realities of the global market place. Let me end by saying we see this as a truly unique moment in history for all those involved in promoting economic growth and economic security for America. It is an exciting journey with many opportunities for people willing to embrace the future. And we look forward to taking this journey with you as we work to build long-term economic opportunity for all Americans. THANK YOU. | ||
| Previous | Next | |
