SALT LAKE CITY — Salt Lake County is joining an economic development network created by the Global Cities Initiative.
The initiative is a five-year joint project of the Brookings Institution and JPMorgan Chase, according to Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams.
Launched in 2012, the Global Cities Initiative aims to help business and civic leaders grow their metropolitan economies by strengthening international connections and competitiveness. Its activities include producing data and research to guide decisions, fostering practice and policy innovations and facilitating a peer learning network.
The network, the Global Cities Initiative’s Exchange, assists metropolitan areas as they develop plans to achieve sustainable growth, first addressing exports and then foreign direct investment. Salt Lake County will start its involvement in the program by developing a metropolitan export plan in 2015.
“We have an exciting opportunity to assist the private sector in creating more well-paying jobs and growing the metro economy,” said McAdams. “Companies that export their products pay at least 17 percent more in wages than companies that only serve domestic markets.”
McAdams said the county is working collaboratively with World Trade Center Utah Director Derek B. Miller, and the Governor’s Office of Economic Development to collect and analyze market data from the metropolitan area. Christina Oliver, Salt Lake County’s regional economic development director, will lead the team.