Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Inaugural Blog

One of the great things about this job is that Amy Love and I routinely have chances to interact with the thought leaders of the State.  In this blog, we will share some of their ideas and stories.
My initial blog will come from a speech that Otis Rawl, CEO of the State Chamber of Commerce, gave to the South Carolina Economic Developers Association. Membership meeting on August 26th.  He quoted Dow Chemical CEO Andrew Liveris who has called for an "Advanced Manufacturing Plan" to rejuvenate the US Economy.  The strategies are 1) New infrastructure investment, 2) Cutting edge R&D, 3) Education that leads the world, 4) Fair trade policies, 5) Alternate energy, 6) Regulatory reform, 7) Fair taxation and 8) Civil justice reform.

Otis expressed concern that the current debate in Washington is over issues like "card check" and "cap and trade" that will make Southern manufacturing less competitive. 

He then outlined some legislative steps that the state chamber will pursue to mirror these strategies at the State level. 

South Carolina's economy is strongly dependent on manufacturing and we applaud the idea of an Advanced Manufacturing Plan at both the federal and state level.