New Zealand: Regions Should Bolster National Economic Competitiveness

Here is an interesting one to consider: regions should contribute to more globally competitive nations. I would agree, and I would argue the reverse as well.

New Zealand Economic Development Minister Trevor Mallard said the Regional Partnerships Programme set up six years ago was now working in a different environment.

It was the Government’s main regional economic development programme and gave regions guidance and funding to develop and get sustainable economic growth strategies started.

Mallard says: "Fair enough . . . there is always scope for attacking low growth and low employment, even though this has improved in recent years. And there is vision in the objective . . .making New Zealand globally competitive."

"Regional economic development should be seen as a blending of local needs and goals with the national priority to transform the New Zealand economy," Mr Mallard said yesterday.

The Government has proposed consolidating the 26 regions to 14 larger areas.

It will mean a shift from a regional entitlement approach to one where the contributions a region can make to national priorities is a much more important factor.

Read more here.

Wisconsin Looks at Program Consolidation

A Wisconsin state panel is considering Legislative Audit Bureau recommendations to consolidate and streamline the number of programs offered by the state, make them more efficient and more accountable. Even after a two-year review of the state's economic development efforts, State Auditor Jan Mueller said she could not tell lawmakers which programs were working and which were not. The audit also showed that the state does not adequately track instances where recipients failed to meet goals and had to make repayments.

Read more here.

US Airways Pits Cities Against Each Other

US Airways Group Inc. is asking civic leaders in Charlotte, Phoenix and Pittsburgh what it's worth to them to have the airline's consolidated operations headquarters in their cities.

The Tempe-based airline this week sent the cities — each already the site of significant flight operations for the airline — a letter asking for the best offer of tax breaks, cheap land and utilities, and discounted buildings and equipment in return for up to 600 jobs.

Read more here.

Lockheed to Lead New Space Program

NASA announced it has tapped Lockheed Martin Corp. to develop the Orion Project crew capsule, a prestigious $3.9 billion assignment that marks America's next big push into interplanetary travel.

The program, an opportunity for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to expand its mission, is also seen as a boon to the aerospace industry at large as it develops the technology and materials needed to carry humans back to the Moon and, eventually, to Mars - a journey of at least 35 million miles.

Scientists envision a revived lunar program as establishing a launch pad for flights deeper into space, with the Red Planet the logical next step as humans explore the solar system.

The Orion capsule will be the primary vehicle for NASA's manned space program. Its basic design resembles conical capsules used in the Apollo missions. But the 16.5-foot diameter, 25-ton craft will have room for six astronauts, twice what its predecessors could carry.

According to NASA, the Orion capsule will be launched on Ares, a new generation of rockets designed initially to put it into low earth orbit so it can rendezvous with the International Space Station. Larger versions will eventually blast Orion capsules to other planets.

The first manned Orion launch is slated for 2014 with a lunar landing expected by no later than 2020. Humans have not set foot on the Moon since Apollo 14 touched down on Earth's nearest neighbor in December 1972.

Read more here.

Nebraska Corn Headed to Ethanol

Within five years, the vast majority of Nebraska's corn crop will help fuel America's surging ethanol producing industry.

Nebraska Corn Board Executive Director Don Hutchens says two-thirds of the state’s corn crop could be used in ethanol production by 2011. "By the end of the next 18 months, we'll have about 36 percent of our corn produced in the state going to ethanol."

"Within two to three years from that," said Hutchens, "we could very easily double that number to 60-65 percent of our corn going to ethanol production."

Facing high gasoline prices and calls for sustainable energy sources, the U.S. ethanol industry has come alive this past year. Nebraska currently has 12 ethanol plants in operation that produce more than 600 million gallons a year of ethanol. Ten more ethannol plants are under construction, and several others are in various stages of development.

Read more here.

Foreign Direct Investment in India

Foreign direct investment into India totaled 1.74 billion U.S. dollars in the first quarter of this fiscal year starting from April, a year-on-year rise of 47 percent.

The foreign direct investment in June increased by a record 102 percent to 534 million U.S. dollars over June last year, the ministry said in a statement released here Friday.

The continuous liberalization of India's foreign direct investment policy and simplification of procedures had attributed to the steady increase, said Kamal Nath, Minister of Commerce and Industry.

According to the ministry, the top 10 industries attracting foreign funds into India were electrical equipment, telecommunications, services sector, transportation industry, fuels, chemicals, food processing industries, drugs and pharmaceuticals, cement and gypsum products and metallurgical industries.

Read more here.

Just How Global is California's Economy

"Compared to the rest of the United States, California exports more services and manufactured goods, and its ports ship more exports by air than by land or sea. I find that the California economy does not differ markedly from the rest of the US in some standard measures of economy globalization, but that California firms are the leading edge of emergent trends.

Immigration has always been an important policy issue for California. High skilled immigrant entrepreneurs like Chinese and Indian computer scientists and engineers, are running more than 30% of the regions high-technology firms and account for $25 billion in sales and 58,000 jobs. It is vital to focus on boosting California exports and attracting foreign companies, but global economic integration is likely to provide new challenges and opportunities. California firms have much more to gain from efforts to open up trade than firms in other states because California businesses rely far more heavily on exports."

Source: Valley News

Household Income Up Slightly

The average American household earned more money last year than in 2004, according to a Census Bureau report released recently.

Based on a sampling of 3 million households, median U.S. household income for 2005 was $46,326, an increase of 1.1 percent in real, inflation-adjusted dollars over the previous year. It was the first time real income rose since 1999.

The nation's poverty rate, at percent 12.6 percent, and the number of Americans living in poverty, 37 million, were statistically identical to the year before. It was the first time since 2000 that the poverty rate had not climbed.

Income rose in the West (1.5 percent) and Northeast (2.9 percent) and was unchanged in the South and Midwest. Median income was highest in the Northeast ($50,882) and lowest in the South ($42,138).

Although real household income was up, wages and salaries lost ground. Wages for men fell 1.8 percent to $41,386; wages for women fell 1.3 percent to $31,858.

Read more here.

Forbes' New State Business Climate Results Out

Forbes' top ten states for business:

Virginia
Texas
North Carolina
Utah
Colorado
Idaho
Nebraska
Delaware
Florida
Georgia

Read more here.

Future Innovations Insight

What niche fields will contribute to tomorrow's great innovations? Ecology, gaming, and social networking, for starters. Read more here.

KC Launches New Incubator

The Economic Development Corporation of Kansas City recently announced the creation of the Kansas City Biotechnology Center.

The center, a 3,700-square-foot micro-incubator, is designed to house early-stage, rapidly growing companies developing pharmaceuticals, medical devices and research and diagnostic equipment.

The project was financed using a combination of private and public sources including Missouri Development Finance Board and Missouri Department of Economic Development tax credits, as well as contributions from the City of Kansas City, Bank Midwest, the Kansas City Industrial Development Authority and the Planned Industrial Expansion Authority.

Read more here.

University of Arizona Leadership Program

Graduates of Project CENTRL, a leadership development program of the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension, share their visions for the future of western Pinal County.

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Foreign Direct Investors’ Outlays in US

In 2005, outlays by foreign direct investors to acquire or establish U.S. businesses were $86.8 billion, little changed from the $86.2 billion in outlays in 2004. Outlays remained considerably below those in 1998-2001, when new investment outlays were historically high, ranging from $147.1 billion to $335.6 billion.

Outlays increased substantially in manufacturing, information, and depository institutions. Together, these three sectors accounted for 58 percent of total outlays. The increase in information was the first increase since 1999. Outlays in finance (except depository institutions) and insurance declined sharply, by $20.0 billion, or 76 percent.

Outlays from Europe increased substantially, particularly those by investors in the United Kingdom, Germany, and the Netherlands. Outlays from the Asia and Pacific and Middle East regions also increased substantially. For the Asia and Pacific region, the increase was largely accounted for by Japanese and Australian investments. These increases were partly offset by a decline in investment outlays from Canada, where outlays had risen sharply in 2004.

Read more here.

Alternative Energy Forecast

The market for biofuels, solar energy, wind power, and fuel cells is expected to quadruple in the next decade, a report Monday said, as the price of these alternative energies decline and the world becomes more concerned about the environmental impact of fossil fuels.

Collectively, global revenue from these fuels is seen growing to $167 billion by 2015 from $40 billion in 2005, according to the Clean Energy Trends report from Clean Edge, a Portland, Oregon-based research firm.

“If you look at the growth rates for wind, solar, and now biofuels, they are now growing more than 30 percent a year,” said Ron Pernick, a principal with Clean Edge. “It’s starting to look similar to the personal computer industry in the 1980s.”

More here.