Thank you very, very much. It?s great to see all of you. Oh, say can you see ? I could if the lights were on. Don?t turn on the lights.
It?s great to be with all of you. This is one of my favorite gatherings every year. And, Deb, I?m not sure I?ve ever missed one. And the reason I?ve never missed one is because of the great job that you do, the great job that this organization does, the essential role that you play in leading all of us forward, because whether we?re creating jobs or not, that?s a choice. Whether we?re engaged in the global economy or not, that?s a choice.
And there are many people here who have always led and always moved forward and always realized that there?s tremendous opportunities in this world of ours if only we choose to engage.
Harold Adams, thank you for all of the leadership that you?ve brought to our State. And it was a great honor to travel with you to China. Harold said, ?I?ve been on a lot of these, this was the best one ever.? And that was the nicest thing anybody could have said about that trade mission. We had about 80 people that went to China. We had about, I think, 100 that went to India. But the reason we do it is because of all the stories that you heard here tonight. So, Deb, thank you.
And also, I had occasion to listen to President Daniels and his presentation here tonight. Talk about a global brand. Wherever I have traveled in the world there?s a lot more people that know where Johns Hopkins is than know where Maryland is. And I don?t mind that, I think it?s a great thing.
And last year, Brit Kirwan, our Chancellor at the University of Maryland, and President Daniels and I testified for InvestMaryland ? the largest infusion of public sector dollars into venture capital in our State that we?ve ever done. And we did it when we were still in the throes ? maybe not the throes, but the back end of this great recession. But to have somebody like President Daniels and also Brit Kirwan as my kind of, you know, wishbone offense of innovation is really a tremendous thing for our State. So I thank both of them.
Not only did we do InvestMaryland, but now we have the Maryland Innovation Initiative, where we are going to be working to move 40 new ideas out of our labs and into the economic bloodstream of our State so we can create jobs and create opportunities and advance not only that Maryland brand around the world but create jobs here at home.?
I love the fact, Deb, that you have the vision to come every year to the Visionary Art Museum. Oh, say can you see. Oh, say can you see the tremendous possibilities that are out there for our State if we are engaged. And, really the people you?ve honored tonight ? Chesapeake Bay Candle, DAI, Development Alternatives, Inc., Lupin Pharmaceuticals, NSCSA, Beitzel/Pillar Innovations and Paul Reed Smith Guitars. There is no economic development incentive I enjoy giving more than to a guitar maker in Maryland. I?ve got to tell you that. Worth every penny, by God. And some of it you can?t even put a price on. These guitars are sold and played all around the world and very, very importantly, support 300 jobs here in Maryland, artisan, manufacturing jobs in Stevensonville, Maryland.
Because of the choices we?ve made together, your State, Maryland, is actually moving out of this recession at a better pace and ahead of the pack. How can I say that? I can say that because of the 30,300 new jobs that so many of you created last year. That was our best year of new job creation that we?ve had since this recession hit. It was a rate of job creation that was twice the rate of job creation of our good neighbors in the Commonwealth of Virginia. We have now recovered 45 percent of the jobs that we lost in the big recession; the national average is about 30 percent of the jobs lost.
Which comes back to the main point of this evening, which is each and every one of you. There?s still a lot of people looking for work, a lot of people looking for jobs. And what you do is critically important to our State?s moving forward.
I want to just touch, if I may, a little bit ? as my main goal here and responsibility is the honor of being able to introduce Frank ? but I recently had a dinner with President Daniels and he said, you know, you need to repeat more and more what our strengths are in this global economy, so that the rest of us can go out and continue to repeat these things.
So bear with me, if you will. I promise not to go longer than one hour and 45 minutes. No, I?m kidding. I?m going to boil it all down.
SECTORS & STRATEGIES
Look, we?ve made a lot of good choices together. They are choices that have allowed us, even in the midst of the recession, to achieve for the first time ever the distinction of being named the number one public schools in America. Now, we did this as the recession was starting, but more remarkably, every year for four years in a row, your schools have been named the number one public schools of any of the 50 states in America.
Because of the investments that we make in our workforce, we have one of the most highly skilled workforces. And we subscribe to that great American idea that if in every generation we educate more people at higher and better levels that that will inure to our economic benefit and, indeed, it has.
And because of Chancellor Kirwan?s leadership and other people at our universities and the legislature and the choices and investments that all of you have made, we were the only State in America to go four years in a row without a penny?s increase in college tuition. In other words, even in the middle of the recession, we actually made our State a place where college education was more affordable for more people.
We are blessed, yes, by geography, yes, by proximity to the nation?s capital, and, therefore, the federal innovation assets like NSA and NASA at Greenbelt and so many others in our State. But we also have great institutions of education and higher learning. But whether or not we move forward and build on those things is a matter of choice.
Maryland, because of the choices that you and I have made together and that our parents made together, Maryland?s economy is an Innovation Economy.
Get this, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, hardly a mouthpiece for the O?Malley/Brown administration, has named Maryland one of the top five states best situated for growth in this new knowledge-based and globally engaged economy. The Milken Institute named us one of the top two best states for science and technology. The Kauffman New Economy Index named us one of the top three best states.
Why is that? That?s because of the facts. We do have one of the most highly skilled workforces, we have innovation assets that most Governors would kill to have. And we continue to move forward, even in difficult times, being fiscally responsible, but also, not only making the cuts that every state has had to make, but by protecting the investments that allow us to move forward.
I mean, look at the sectors that are some of our leading sectors in this innovation economy. They are life sciences and biotech, they are IT and cyber security, they are space and aerospace. Increasingly, clean tech, green tech. There?s a reason we?re pushing the offshore wind, there?s a reason that we are embracing a more renewable energy future. It has to do with jobs and advanced manufacturing.
Mike Galiazzo is out there, it?s his birthday, I know. And I was out at White Marsh, at the GM plant, remember when they were about to give GM last rites four years ago? Now GM is number one. Because of the innovations that we made as a nation, we turned around that advanced manufacturing, cleaner, greener cars. You know in White Marsh they?re going to be adding jobs, going from 200 to 400 in the next year. And a lot of that will be a benefit in the exports that we?re seeing out of the Port of Baltimore.
To drive home a point that sometimes we take for granted, there is this thing called the Port of Baltimore. In fact, some call it the Helen Bentley Port of Baltimore. And we have seen our exports increasing out of the Port of Baltimore. Because of a public/private partnership, we?re actually going to be able to accommodate those larger ships that come through the Panama Canal. I?m not sure if any of you saw the article in the Baltimore Sun, it was actually a positive article about business in the State of Maryland. Let?s applaud for that, it was a positive article.
We engaged in a public/private partnership that allowed us to actually widen the facilities at Seagirt and we have about a ten year jump competitively on Norfolk and some other ports that you?ve read about.
ENGAGING IN THE WORLD
Ultimately, our strength and our global competitiveness in this world depends on our willingness, our ability, our foresight ? oh, say can you see how important it is to invest and make the modern investments that allow a modern economy to actually create jobs.
Thanks to your leadership last year, we increased Maryland?s exports seven percent to nearly $11 billion. Maryland wins when Maryland businesses engage in the world. And those exports are now at a level that we have not seen since the recession hit. In other words, they?re now back up at pre-recession levels.
Maryland wins when businesses like Premier Rides, Jim Shea ? who I see out here today. Under Jim?s leadership, Premier Rides is building the tallest indoor roller coaster for the Great Mall of China. And this is happening as a direct result of the mission that we took to China.
Show of hands, how many of you participated in one of our State?s trade missions last year. A few of you here. Good. Great. Next year, we?ll have more.
Overall, we had more than 80 business owners onboard for our trip to China, South Korea, Vietnam, 100 going to India. It was the largest delegation ever. We learned that the mission to India, only after we embarked, was the largest that any individual state among the United States had ever taken to India.
Therefore, it is not by chance but by choice. Last year, we increased exports to China by 16 percent, exports to India by 8 percent. Through the mission to China and South Korea and Vietnam, we worked with you to secure more than $85 million in trade and foreign direct investment into Maryland. And through the mission to India, we secured $60 million in direct investment into Maryland.
Another reason that we?ve been able to make progress in Maryland?s trade economy, is your support for the Maryland Export Initiative. Deb, thank you and your members so much. I mean, every one of these stories exemplifies why advancing exports abroad creates jobs here at home.
With President Obama?s help we?ve increased the size of the Export Maryland grants to $10,000. And your State government has helped ? more than two dozen Maryland companies reported sales of $67 million last year, thanks to the Export Maryland Initiative.
And I encourage you, I thank you and I appreciate everything you do to make all of this possible. There are so many friends that I know are out there in the audience. Drew, who I?m always seeing on the evening news shows talking about how important manufacturing is, creates a throw rate of 2.5, right, for every one job in advanced manufacturing. I watch your blurbs when you?re on there. Tim Hodge, who I know has several clients here and works and is engaged.
EDUCATE, INNOVATE, REBUILD
Look, in conclusion, the bottom line is this, our parents and grandparents gave to us a great business model. They gave to us a business model of a country that can constantly create more jobs and more opportunities for every successive generation, as long as each of us in our own time has the courage, the foresight and the ability to see that in order to create jobs, a modern economy requires modern investments ? investments in education, investments in innovation and, yes, investments in infrastructure.
Right now, in Annapolis we are engaged in the great conversation about how we can, in the fairest way possible, keep faith with the great business model that our parents and grandparents gave us in order to give our children a better quality of life than the ones we?ve had.
Tom Friedman, fellow Marylander, from Bethesda, Maryland, in his recent book says, you know what, the rest of the world has figured out how we became great, how we created wealth and more opportunity in every generation. Our mission is really to remember that ourselves.
I need your help. All of you travel around the world all of the time. You see what other nations are doing and you see what we are not doing as well as we used to. We have been greatly undercapitalizing the tremendous job-generating, opportunity-expanding engine business model that our parents and grandparents gave to us.
I mean, we can?t create a better transportation infrastructure if we resign ourselves to the same flat 23 cents that goes on a gallon gas from 20 years ago when the price of gas was $1.08. I?d like to tell you we can eat cake and lose weight. I?d like to tell you that the new American motto is no longer e pluribus unum, but pay less and live better.
But the world doesn?t work like that. And if we want to be a leader as a nation, if we want to be a leader as a State in the competition for jobs and opportunities, we have to come together as a people to figure out how we make these investments in a fair way that moves us forward.
So I encourage you. It?s easy to become very cynical and assume that our leaders don?t listen to us and that nobody in Annapolis cares. But it?s not true. I tell you, I have conversations every single day with state senators and delegates and they all go there every day with a tremendous amount of pride and a sense of responsibility that they work for you. So pick up the phone, call them. Help us make the modern investments that a modern economy requires. In order to create jobs, not only here at home, but also all around the world.
Increasing the biotech tax credit, that didn?t happen by chance. Extending the R&D tax credit, that did not happen by chance. The InvestMaryland Initiative, Brit, that we testified for, those things don?t happen by chance. They?re the product of choice. And if together we continue to make good choices and better choices than others in this time of self doubt, in this time when many are willing to resign themselves to a lower quality of living.
If we can make better decisions, you?re not only willing to be able to create a better quality of life for your kids and your employees and your businesses, you?re going to be able to remind America what made us great in the first place. And that?s always been our legacy as a State. When the chips are down, when the enemy is at the gate, we rise. And we make a new day.
CONCLUSION: PRESENTATION TO FRANK BURCH
It is my honor to be able to present now an award to a man I have known for many, many years. And it is the Governor?s International Leadership Award and I have the honor of being able to give this award to one of the foremost global business leaders of our State, of our City, of our time. For those of you who know Frank Burch, you know that his leadership has meant so much to our State in so many ways.
Former Piper and Marbury, a regional firm, great historic American firm with 250 lawyers. Now, DLA Piper, resistance is futile. It is a top ten global legal practice with 4,200 lawyers in 30 counties. That?s a lot of interrogatories and depositions for anybody that wants to take them on.
Last year Frank was named chairman of Johns Hopkins Medicine, talk about extending the weapons of mass salvation to this world of malaria and confronting the other things that Ron Davis talked about.
He is serving now as the guiding force behind this healing hospital, this worldwide global hospital, the School of Medicine at Johns Hopkins Health System. And earlier, as a civic leader in the GBC, he was one of those that said that it?s not okay for Baltimore to be one of the most violent cities in America. We have to turn this around, we have to make our city a safer and more livable place.
And he was also one of those who encouraged us to clear all of those blocks north of Johns Hopkins so that great job generator and that great beacon of hope and healing to the world could actually expand and create jobs in life science and biotech here in Baltimore.
So it is a great honor for me now and I ask you to join me in a hearty congratulations to Frank Burch, the 2012 Governor?s International Leadership honoree.
Tags: award, DBED, Maryland International Incubator, Maryland?s Office of International Investment and Trade, Visionary Art Museum
joe philbin miss america pageant 2012 shipwreck jose aldo vs chad mendes lana del rey john 3 16 alex smith 49ers
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.