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Industry policy sought for recovery |
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Thursday, 24 September 2009 |
By WILLIAM LANEY
Managing Editor
Ohio, similar to other states, is suffering because of the recession — and that is why an Ohio Congressman, and members of an Ohio contingency, say they are pushing for a national manufacturing policy to help the Buckeye State and the nation recover.
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, announced Wednesday he and Ohio Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland shared the senator’s manufacturing friendly proposals with Ron Bloom, President Barack Obama’s senior counselor for manufacturing policy.
“The administration is demonstrating that it understands what Gov. Strickland and I already know and that is manufacturing is the ticket to the middle class,” Brown said Wednesday during a media teleconference. “We have started to show signs of recovery, but we need a manufacturing policy that works, invests in our workers and rebuilds the middle class.”
Brown briefly outlined tenets in his national manufacturing strategy which includes “investing in manufacturing innovation, strengthening the component supply chain, connecting workers with emerging industries, improving federal response to economically distressed communities, ensuring trade policies are aligned with our national interests” and realizing work force development and economic development are linked.
He also is pushing for creating a favorable business climate through tax and health care policies and helping manufacturers retool for 21st clean energy industries. Brown said the city of Toledo has more solar energy jobs than any state in the nation.
During the teleconference, Strickland noted he met earlier in the day with Assistant Secretary of Commerce John Fernandez to discuss the departure of DHL from Wilmington and the need for money for a revolving loan fund.
During meetings in Washington, D.C., Strickland was joined by Ohio Department of Development Director Lisa Patt-McDaniel and Ohio Board of Regents Chancellor Eric Fingerhutt as well as Ohio Manufacturers’ Association President Eric Burkland and Ohio AFL-CIO President Joe Rugola.
Strickland said he talked with Fernandez about Ohio’s efforts to create “hub communities around Ohio” such as the first one started in Dayton for “innovation and opportunity in aerospace.”
He also addressed efforts made in Ohio to improve education and the availability to education to create a better trained work force for the future.
“Ohio’s manufacturing industry has been supplying what the nation needs for generations, and we’re now supplying what the world needs,” Strickland said in a news release. “Ohio manufacturers are leading the way by innovating and utilizing new technologies to stay competitive. As a state, we are working every day to help manufacturers tool up to better meet the demands of a modern economy.
“Even in the face of difficult economic circumstances, manufacturing in Ohio is competitive, and at the forefront of new technologies. I believe that Ohio’s manufacturing story is really only just beginning,” he said.
Strickland also stressed the importance of a cooperative effort between the state and federal governments with businesses to position Ohio and the United States to take advantage of opportunities as the economy emerges from the recession.
Ohio was recently awarded more than $1.3 million in federal funds through the Manufacturing Extension Partnership program at the U.S. Department of Commerce. This partnership, which is designed to help small and mid-sized manufacturers improve their growth, productivity and efficiency, has assisted approximately 3,500 Ohio manufacturers employ 670,000 Ohioans.
“I am convinced that without the partnership that our good Sen. Sherrod Brown, our federal government and the Barack Obama administration has worked on with the private sector — we will not emerge from this recession in the strongest possible position,” Strickland said during the teleconference. “That is why we are working every day and why we are in D.C. today, making sure and establishing the kind of relationships to develop these partnerships.”
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Last Updated ( Friday, 25 September 2009 )
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