Business opportunities in Asia, software development and clean energy are three broad areas the Washington state Department of Commerce plans to focus on growing in coming years, says director Rogers Weed.
Speaking to business leaders Friday in a Chancellor’s Lecture at Washington State University Vancouver, Weed laid out his goals for the state’s economy and budget in the next biennium.
In addition to outlining the department’s newly developed strategy for job creation, Weed announced his overarching mission to transition the responsibility of economic recovery from the public to the private sector.
In all, the Department of Commerce has set a goal to create 40,000 new jobs in the state as a result of this strategy. That number falls far short of the roughly 154,000 jobs lost statewide in the past year due to the recession.
o Previously: Gov. Chris Gregoire in March appointed Rogers Weed to direct the Washington Department of Commerce.
o What’s new: Weed presented three areas of focus for long-term economic development in the state at a Chancellor’s Lecture on Friday at Washington State University Vancouver.
o What’s next: Weed hopes to help job creation move from the public to the private sector.
But the state government can’t be solely responsible for boosting employment, Weed said. The private sector will need to step in with its own strategies for growth and change as well.
“People believe most of the turnaround to this point has been by public investment,” Weed said. “I’m asking, what can the state do to encourage private investment?”
The largest opportunities for growth in the private sector, he says, lie in three recent trends in the state economy:
• Washington has historically benefited from growth in Asian economies, said Weed, and companies should consider how they might leverage that experience. He called the shift of economic power to Asia “dramatic”, citing the projected growth in China’s gross domestic product in 2010 that’s eight times the estimated growth in the U.S. GDP.
“There is a huge opportunity for our state to connect to that area more than we have,” said Weed.
• Software is also an area of strength for Washington technology companies, which are heavily focused on Internet technology. He envisions an expansion of software development into aerospace, video gaming, bioinformatics, and smart grid applications.
“Smart grid is one of the state’s largest opportunities on the side of clean tech overall,” Weed said.
• Clean technology is also an area that produces jobs across many sectors, Weed said. The definition of a “green job” isn’t limited to positions in renewable energy, he said.
