Although America’s metropolitan areas are recovering from the recession, there is room for significant improvement. That’s why many major metro regions are getting a running start into the international market with help from the Global Cities Initiative.
The Brookings Institution and JPMorgan Chase started GCI in early 2011 in four metro areas; it has since expanded to 28. Salt Lake County is one of seven that joined GCI in early 2015, making up the fourth cohort.
Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams finds value in being part of a later cohort, as it allows him to assess failures and successes for other metro areas in the country. He and a team of business and research leaders visited the Deseret News in late July prior to officially introducing GCI in Salt Lake County.
McAdams was optimistic that GCI will help the county and state break into the global market. The avenue to get there? Developing a clear, functional export strategy.
McAdams emphasized that companies involved in exports did better than companies that didn’t by 37 percent during the heart of the recession. Yet only 4 percent of U.S. companies actually export anything outside of the country. Not enough American companies are taking advantage of the global marketplace.
One of the chief flaws of Utah’s export business is that 50 percent of exports comes from Kennecott, by far the state’s largest private sector operation, and one that doesn’t show signs of slowing down anytime soon.
Take away the mining and much of Utah’s exports dwindle. That’s where GCI hopes to step in to provide direction on creating a more diverse export strategy. That diversity can come from some of many potential exporting industries already in the state — aerospace, medical sciences, genealogic research, computer technology.
The expected release date of Salt Lake County’s export strategy is sometime in the first quarter of 2016, when organizations like World Trade Center Utah will offer training for local business owners to realize greater exports.
At the Salt Lake County launch party on July 22 that introduced the county into GCI, Amy Liu, senior fellow and co-director of the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program, gave a presentation to show growth in the national economy since the recession. Salt Lake County has recovered 6.4 percent of jobs since the heart of the recession, but changes need to come for this growth to continue. Liu predicted that the bulk of demand for U.S. products would come from outside the country over the next five years.
For Salt Lake County to reach the global economic stage, leaders from the area should take this relationship with GCI seriously and adapt business plans to include more exports.