“Yes,” Portland should double its international exports over the next five years. And “yes,” the targeted activities and funding in the report “Greater Portland Export Plan: Metro Export Initiative” makes sense in achieving that limited goal. But do not think of this report as a visionary document that will turn Portland into a vibrant international city. It’s too self-centered in its focus and too narrow in its vision. Overall, it's a disappointment and not up to the needs of a regional city striving to become a first-class international city.
From the Oregonian article “Officials aim to double metro Portland’s exports to $42 billion in five years” by Rich Read (here):
City officials and the Brookings Institution will unveil a strategy Wednesday to try doubling metropolitan Portland's exports in five years, adding $21 billion in foreign sales.
The surge could create more than 100,000 jobs, according to Greater Portland Inc., the Portland-Vancouver economic development organization that will coordinate the effort.
Officials designed the Greater Portland Metro Export Strategy, one of four pilot projects in the nation, to reform dysfunctional export-promotion efforts scattered among federal, state and local entities. The idea is to help exporters boost sales and recruit companies to reach customers in fast-growing foreign economies.
Sponsors acknowledge they will conduct the first-of-a-kind program on the cheap, with a $200,000 annual budget for Greater Portland Inc. to coordinate efforts among existing players.....
The report itself calls for four strategies (here, p. 8):
Greater Portland’s MEI proposes four core strategies designed to best drive attainment of goals and strategic objectives:
(1)Leverage primary exporters in computer and electronics;
(2) Catalyze underexporters in manufacturing;
(3) Improve the export pipeline for small business; and
(4) “We Build Green Cities”—brand and market Greater Portland’s global edge.
These I find ok, as far as they go.
Two significant elements are missing from the report.
First, the report has no discussion of what is happening in the global economy: that Portland’s biggest and best business opportunities are in the rapidly growing emerging markets abroad, places like China, India, Brazil, Russia, Indonesia, etc. These are not mentioned in the report. I find the “market analysis” section of the report very provincial and self-center (when the whole purpose of this report should be to look at opportunities abroad). It just talks about Portland (and comparisons of Portland to other places). What kind of global awareness is that?
Second, the vision of what needs to be done here in Portland is far too narrow and too limited. The report does not mention strengthening and expanding foreign language programs in the schools, nor which language should be targeted related to trade opportunities, nor support for high school study abroad programs in public high schools, nor which countries should be targeted for these high school study abroad programs. Even with this report, Portland will fall behind. The State of Utah is rapidly expanding Mandarin, French and Spanish immersion programs to create a multilingual workforce for the global economy (here, here). This report makes no recommendations on improving the workforce for internatiional trade.
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