Leadership Summit: Shaping Oregon's Economic Future
Senator Ron Wyden, Summit Co-Chair
Senator Gordon Smith, Summit Co-Chair
Governor-elect Ted Kulongoski, Summit Co-Chair
Oregon Convention Center
December 9, 2002
Portland, OR

Summit Press Clips

Council Offers Economic Strategy for Oregon
by Colin Fogarty, OREGON PUBLIC BROADCASTING
12-05-02

PORTLAND, OR (Oregon Considered) - Next Monday, about 1,300 business and political leaders will meet in Portland for a summit on Oregon's economy.

Governor-elect Ted Kulongoski will speak, as well as Oregon's two US Senators. The intellectual muscle behind the meeting comes from the Oregon Business Council, an association of executives from 40 of the state's biggest companies. This week, the group released a report outlining a long term economic strategy for the state.

Recessions are turning points in economic history. That's the idea behind a study by the Oregon Business Council. About a year ago, the group's Duncan Wyse set about conducting focus groups and interviews with business executives throughout the state.

Duncan Wyse: During a recession, obviously everybody gets very focused on the economy, and also it just becomes a moment when businesses make choices. And as we move out of recession, we begin to define what the future is going to be.

That's what happened after the devastating recession of the early 1980s. The lesson was that Oregon's economy depended too heavily on timber and agriculture. Since then, the state has diversified, becoming a hub for high tech companies and other industries. It worked. From 1983 to 2000, 670,000 new jobs were created in Oregon. That's an average of about 35,000 each year. Now, Oregon has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country. Wyse says Oregon is no longer home to low-skill manufacturing plants. What's left, he says, are companies that depend on knowledge.

Duncan Wyse: We're doing more of the R and D, more of the product design, more of the design engineering, and whether it's metals, high technology, forest products, those themes seemed to emerge .If want to be a leading state in the industries where we compete, there are certain number of requirements.

One of those requirements is to foster what's become a buzzword in business circles these days -- clusters. Niche industries in the same town tend to feed off one another. For example, Intel has spawned numerous satellite firms. Also, Oregon is known for sports apparel because Nike, Columbia Sportswear, and the US headquarters of Adidas are all here. Now, one might assume that a report written by business executives might recommend the state just lower taxes and, as a rule, get out of the way. But this report says the state should spend more money on K through 12 education, universities, and roads. Duncan Wyse says the economy can't be separated from public services.

Duncan Wyse: Well managed services are very critical to the economy, everything from education to infrastructure, that those become key supplies to the economy. And that if we do this right the two go hand in hand.

The Oregon Business Council report is separate from a list of recommendations assembled by former Governor Neil Goldschmidt. He toured the state meeting with business leaders on behalf of income governor Ted Kulongoski. Elements of that plan and the Oregon Business Council report may appear in the governor-elect's speech to the business summit. But Scott Ballo, Kulongoski's spokesman, downplayed expectations of the speech.

Scott Ballo: I don't know if he's going to set out a plan or not or whether he's going to be setting out priorities. So there may not be, here's a 30 page plan for us to follow for the next two years to resurrect the sluggish economy. But definitely he'll discuss his priorities and the direction we should be going.

Kulongoski may be saving specifisc for his inauguration January 13th. Even so, Senator Ron Wyden, one of the primary instigators of the summit, hopes this meeting will help build consensus for an economic strategy.

Ron Wyden: In the time that I've been in the Congress we've had the private sector go forward with various ideas. We've had the government sector go forward with various ideas. We went to Duncan many months ago and said, lets try something different, lets try to get both sides working from the same hymnal.

Organizers of the summit are billing it as the largest gathering of business and political leaders in Oregon history.

© Copyright 2003, OPB

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