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President
and CEO Greater
Houston Partnership Remarks
to Breakfast
Meeting in Taipei Good
morning – it’s a great morning to be in China!
I
am very honored to be your guest in this beautiful city.
Creating
a close connection to those with whom we do business has its many risks,
but it also has great rewards and incredible consequences.
Our
visit to your beautiful city enforces those connections we have made
here and we will carry them with us as we work to build our economies
both in Taipei and in Houston .
For
those of you who may not know about Houston and the Houston region, I
would like to share with you some of our great successes.
Let
me start with giving you a bit of information about the Greater Houston
Partnership.
The
Greater Houston Partnership, through its membership, represents the
business interests of a ten-county area and promotes the growth of
high-paying jobs, international trade and capital investment in the
Houston region.
To
give you a sense of scale and magnitude - annual sales and other
receipts by firms and organizations represented on the Greater Houston
Partnership’s board of directors alone, exceeds $1.92 trillion!
Those
combined receipts are greater than the Gross Domestic Products of all
but six nations and are equivalent to nearly one-fifth of the U.S. GDP.
As
many of you may know, Houston is the fourth largest city in the United
States . The city of Houston itself is larger than the state of Maryland
, and the 640 square miles of Houston could contain the cities of New
York , Washington , Boston , San Francisco , Seattle , Minneapolis and
Miami .
The
Houston region is third among U.S. metro areas in the number of
corporate headquarters of Fortune 500 companies – twenty-four are
headquartered in Houston – ranking us just behind New York City and
Chicago . And, we have more than half of the world’s 100 largest non-U.S.
based corporations operating in our area.
We
are home to 87 consulates supported by 41 foreign commercial offices and
23 foreign chambers of commerce and trade associations. This represents
the third-largest number in the United States . More than 90 languages
are spoken throughout the Houston region.
The
Houston Region boasts unparalleled opportunities for business,
entrepreneurs, and individuals seeking their fortunes.
Within our borders you will find:
·
The
Houston Medical Center – the world’s largest by a wide margin ·
The
Johnson Space Center – a breeding ground for new technologies ·
The
Energy Industry – Make no mistake about it, Houston remains The Energy
Capital of the World. ·
And
now, the Houston Region is leading the way in yet a new industry
–Biotechnology.
Much
like Taipei – the Houston region has a rich history of Visionary
Leadership – a history of people willing to risk huge amounts of
capital and established reputations to pursue dreams.
The
Houston Region is a center of tremendous entrepreneurial spirit. A
spirit “embedded in Houston ’s DNA” as urban historian and
futurist, Joel Kotkin recently noted in his new study – Opportunity
Urbanism.
As
we are planning here how to better our trade relations, we also need a
plan to continue on our path toward economic prosperity. In 2005, the
Partnership created a 10-year strategic plan with the help of Ray
Perryman, a Nobel Prize nominee in economics.
President
Bush has called Perryman “one of the world’s leading economists.
Perryman is a renowned scholar and is often said to be the “most
quoted man in Texas .”
Within
that plan is our mission – “we are the primary advocate of Houston
's business community and we are dedicated to building regional economic
prosperity.”
This
Plan provides the basis for all the Partnership does to promote our
region and shape the Houston Region’s destiny. And, it supports a
single goal: to build economic prosperity in the Houston region.
Within
our Strategic Plan, we created a program to make sure we have the
resources and support necessary to convert our goals from possibility to
reality.
We
took some very large steps and created Opportunity
HoustonSM ,an aggressive five-year marketing program that
will generate leads for economic development organizations throughout
Houston' s 10-county region.
Opportunity
HoustonSM is
a $40 million fundraising vehicle by which it will help create 600,000
net regional jobs, attract $60 billion in additional capital investment,
and increase foreign trade by $120 billion for the greater Houston area.
Opportunity
HoustonSM targets five major economic sectors: ·
Aviation
and aerospace, ·
Energy
and petrochemical, ·
Medical
and biotechnology, ·
Information
technology, and ·
Nanotechnology.
In
other words, we’re going to do nothing less than make Greater Houston
a magnet for global commerce and a place where companies of vision and
people of energy, enthusiasm and hard work can come and prosper.
You
can see we’re serious about our growth – about the challenges that
face us today and about serving as a model to the rest of the country
– and the world – that we are the global leader for the 21st
century.
We
are blazing toward a globalization path. And we are doing that through
trade missions like this to every corner of the world.
As
you know, China is our nation’s second largest trading partner with a
total trade of more than $340 billion last year. And Houston is well
positioned to take advantage of the growing relationship with Chinese
businesses.
I
am optimistic about our relationship today and in the years to come. You
have a great entrepreneurial spirit – and that spirit will be right at
home working in Houston as well.
We
have much to gain in terms of jobs and trade by meeting that growing
need for supplies, materials and services. And our visit here has
reinforced the commitment that we share as partners in the global
economy.
May
your city and ours continue on a path of friendship, working toward both
economic prosperity and growth.
Thank
you Have
a wonderful day
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