Utah's economic development chief wants to set up an office in Brussels, Belgium, and will ask the Legislature for an estimated $250,000 to operate the bureau.
Stan Parrish, executive director of the state's Department of Community and Economic Development, mentioned the proposed office during a seminar this week on Europe's plan to tear down economic and trade barriers between countries beginning in 1992.The seminar, sponsored by accounting firm KPMG Peat Marwick, stressed planning for business opportunities when Europe merges into a single, unified market. Although the speeches focused on how businesses can invest in Europe, Parrish said the proposed state bureau will have another function:
"We need to focus on the European community as a major investor in Utah," he said.
Utah wouldn't be the only state taking advantage of Europe in 1992. Parrish said 26 states have European trade offices and 11 of those bureaus are in Belgium.
The state already operates three overseas offices - Tokyo; Seoul, Korea; and Taipei, Taiwan - to attract foreign investment and tourism to Utah and provide a contact for Utah exporters to the Pacific Rim.
But with Europe fast becoming the hot market of the 1990s, the state has now aimed its sites toward the Atlantic. Parrish said Europeans already make up the largest number of international tourists visiting Utah.
Brussels is the preferred location, Parrish said, because it is politically neutral and is the headquarters of the European Economic Community and NATO.
The NATO presence attracts foreign defense contractors, which is what Utah economic development officials want to target as part of a program to create 18,000 new aerospace jobs, Parrish said. He noted that talks are under way with Air Bus and other major European aerospace firms to establish operations in Utah.
State economic development officials hope the track record of its Pacific Rim trade bureaus will convince lawmakers meeting in January that another foreign office is worth the investment.
Japanese tours to Utah and a Taiwan computer firm's $25 million circuit board manufacturing plant in Salt Lake County are two of the success stories officials can tell, said Kirk Green, director of the department's Division of Business and Economic Development.
The success has come at a price, however: $350,000 a year to operate the three overseas offices. The Tokyo bureau employs three people, Taipei has two and Seoul contracts with a Utah attorney working in that city.
Green said the proposed Brussels office may cost an estimated $250,000-$300,000 to run. It would operate the same way as the Pacific Rim bureaus.The state would hire natives to the continent who would be under contract to find investors in Utah, set up tours and trade shows, and be a resource for Utah businesses interested in trade with Europe.