NorthwestFebruary 10, 2004

Shannon Dininny

RICHLAND, Wash. -- Economic development doesn't stop at the borders of cities, counties and states, and areas of the Northwest hoping to boost their economies should work together and ignore those borders to avoid becoming stagnant, a Bush administration official said Monday.

"Economies are no longer sealed in these artificial political boundaries. Businesses looking to expand are looking at a region as a whole, not a county or a state," said Sandy Baruah, chief of staff for the U.S. Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration. "It becomes all that more important to collaborate."

Baruah addressed about 100 officials from areas of Washington, Oregon and Idaho at an economic development forum, the fifth in a series of 20 seminars scheduled around the country to promote regional economic development. Other seminars have been in Maine, New Hampshire, West Virginia and Iowa.

Those attending the forum included officials charged with improving their local economies in Washington, Oregon and Idaho.

As of last month, more than 2 million jobs had been lost nationwide since President Bush took office, including more than 120,000 in Washington and Oregon.

Seminar locations were chosen, in part, because they have economies that cross several jurisdictions, such as cities, counties or even states.

Washington's Tri-Cities of Kennewick, Pasco and Richland are a perfect example of such a region, Baruah said. In addition, the region resembles many parts of the country that will see their economies change drastically in the coming years.

For 40 years, the 586-square-mile Hanford nuclear reservation near Richland made plutonium for the nation's nuclear weapons, beginning with the top-secret Manhattan Project to build the atomic bomb during World War II. Today, it is the nation's most contaminated nuclear site.

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In 1945, the site employed about 51,000 people. The number of workers handling environmental cleanup at the site is expected to be about 11,000 this year, and the Energy Department announced employment numbers will begin to decline in 2006, with about 4,000 jobs disappearing by 2008.

"There is an inherent challenge," Baruah said. "It is a region undergoing structural economic change. That is a common theme throughout the area. The Tri-Cities are reflective of challenges faced by other areas."

The Economic Development Administration, which was created in 1965, has an annual budget of about $400 million. The agency provides between 600 and 900 grants each year to businesses and communities, ranging from $600,000 to $6 million. The agency also has a revolving loan fund worth more than $1 billion.

Richard Larman, acting director of the state Department of Commerce, Trade and Economic Development, agreed that economic development has no relationship to political or geographic boundaries.

"The Northwest has to be competitive with the rest of the world," Larman said.

Speakers stressed the continued need to focus on creating high-technology jobs by partnering with research universities and promoting entrepreneurial activities. They also said Northwest states should avoid focusing on urban areas and make efforts to boost the economies of rural communities.

The best way to accomplish that is through private investments, Baruah said.

"The days are over where the state and federal government can invest in projects and say, 'If we build it, they will come,' " he said. "We are really looking for what are the investments in the private sector."

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