Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, October 16, 1994 TAG: 9410180014
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: G3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GERALD L. BALILES
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The fact that Virginia is at the heart of the Eastern seaboard, a day's drive from half the population of the United States, is an advantage of geographic good fortune.
Other advantages - such as a commitment to higher education dating from the establishment of The College of William and Mary in 1693 - are the result of shrewd thinking and consistent hard work.
And still others are a combination of the two: the fact, for example, that we have worked hard to turn the natural advantage of a deep-water port in Hampton Roads into a state-of-the-art facility and one of our most important economic development assets. Or the fact that we have enhanced our geographic location by investing in roads and railroads, airports and seaports, to provide the connections we need to markets across the country or around the world.
As effective as these advantages are in their own right, and as impressive as the sum of their parts might be, the real trick is to bring them together into a coherent whole - a long-term strategy for growth in a rapidly changing world.
Virginia's response to the imperative of global competition ought to be what I like to call the four pillars of a competitive commonwealth:
Education: the ability to learn so that, through the power of our minds, we can make our society advance, indefinitely, into the future.
Infrastructure: the ability to move our people to destinations and our goods to markets wherever in the world they might exist.
Telecommunications: the ability to exchange, share and use information.
Trade: the ability to sell our goods and services anywhere in the world.
During my 15 years of public service, I often argued that transportation and education were the building blocks of economic growth. As governor and since, I have found that to be more true than ever.
In my travels in recent years, seeing how important it is to be able to use and share information, I am convinced that telecommunications must be considered another building block of economic growth.
And in today's global economy, our economic-development efforts at home must include trade: the ability and willingness to produce for and find new markets wherever in the world they exist.
Fortunately, Virginia has the tools to shape change, meet the challenge and beat the competition.
In elementary and secondary education, our investments in such subjects as geography and foreign languages, help ensure that Virginians will be able to participate fully in the work force of the future. They also serve as a powerful magnet for companies - foreign and domestic - looking to our state as a place to invest, because they convey the impression that Virginia is looking forward, beyond our immediate borders.
In higher education, most of the engines that drive the American economy had their origins in colleges and universities. The hybrid plants that sparked the agricultural revolution. The computers that do the work of the information-processing industry. The genetic engineering that made the United States the world leader in biotechnology. The innovative materials on which the world's foremost aerospace industry depends.
Too often, the economics of higher education are viewed in terms of buildings, equipment and other facilities, faculty, students and alumni. That's misleading and incomplete. Higher education must be viewed for its value in a fast-changing society where the ability to lift thoughts has become as important as the ability to lift loads, where the capacity to think and to reason has become an important new form of economic capital. Higher education must be seen, measured, and appreciated for its economic impact, for its ability to attract and maintain manufacturers and service-oriented industries.
In telecommunications, an industry that is increasingly knowledge-based, we must ensure that we are ready and able to compete in a world increasingly reliant on the sale and consumption of services.
In a world in which billions of dollars traverse the globe in seconds, in which production decisions must be quickly communicated to facilities around the world, and in which the products of our minds' labors are becoming ever more important commodities in world markets, we must do all we can to promote and take advantage of advances in telecommunications.
In infrastructure, our investments in surface, air and water commerce are paying big dividends. You can't trade if you can't get there; if you make your product in Virginia, you should be able to get it there.
Business at our ports has tripled over the past decade. This progress has resulted in the creation of more than 100,000 new jobs paying $2.4 billion in wages, while making the world's markets more accessible to Virginia businesses. Additionally, our investments in roads, railroads and airports have given Virginians the connections to destinations and markets they need to do business in the global economy.
These investments provide the means to discover and develop new products, and to get those new products to markets in every region of this country and every corner of the world.
There may be temptations to cut back on those investments. By shortchanging those investments now in education, transportation, telecommunications and trade, we will steal from our own future.
Gerald L. Baliles, head of the International Practice Group of the Richmond law firm of Hunton and Williams, is a former Virginia governor. This is excerpted from a speech last month at the Virginia Conference on World Trade.
by CNB