PEORIA, Ariz. (Oct. 5,
2009) – Mayor Bob Barrett heads to China next week to take part in an
international economic forum on sustainable development and new types of
industrialization.
Organizers of the
inaugural Caofeidian Forum invited Barrett and are paying for the mayor and his
wife to attend the Oct. 15-17 event in Tangshan, a city of 7.2 million people in
northeastern China. The Barretts will depart Oct. 13 and return Oct. 19.
“I hope this trip will
give me an opportunity to sell Peoria, the Valley and Arizona to both the
Chinese and to the others attending the forum,” Barrett says. “The key message I
hope to convey is that Peoria and Arizona are on the cutting edge of the
renewable-energy revolution, and that we offer companies looking to expand a
great location with good land values, transit corridors and an educated work
force.”
Other invitees include
Chinese and international political leaders, representatives from U.N.-related
organizations, officials of the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank,
scholars and representatives of Forbes 500 enterprises. Barrett is one of nine U.S. mayors attending, along with Boyd Dunn of Chandler.
Susan J. Daluddung,
Peoria’s deputy city manager for development and community services, concurs
that this is a unique opportunity for the city to put a positive emphasis on
renewable and solar-energy businesses as a means for improving the local
economy. “We have plenty of sunshine, new state incentives for renewable
industries and vacant manufacturing space waiting to be filled," she says.
“The more opportunity we have to speak to worldwide efforts toward renewable
industrial strategies,” Daluddung adds, “the better off our city will become.”
The mayor says he hopes
to get beyond buzz words and learn more about where these emerging markets are
heading. While he would like to attract related businesses to Peoria, he asks,
“What, specifically, are we talking about?” Economic development is a two-way
street, and Barrett wants investment from businesses that will bring value to
Peoria.
“What I would really
like to get would be the headquarters and research-and-development aspects of
companies involved in solar and other renewables,” he says. “Putting up a solar
"farm" over a vast number of acres does not create the number of jobs, nor the
salaries, that would be of most benefit. Those would come from having the
scientists working in Peoria.”
“I hope to learn just
what we need to do as a city, region and state to attract and hold their
attention – and, hopefully, lure them to Arizona,” Barrett says.
The forum will take
place in a city long synonymous with industrialization. Tangshan’s history
boasts China’s first mechanized coal mine, first standard-gauge railway track,
first steam locomotive, first barrel of machine-made cement, first set of
sanitary ceramics and first stock certificate. Completely rebuilt since a
devastating 1976 earthquake, the area has been designated a demonstration zone
and model for sustainable development by Chinese President Hu Jintao.
The Caofeidian Forum is
cosponsored by the city of Tangshan, Hebei Province and three Chinese government
agencies.
