Minnesota and the Commerce Department form a winning team to promote development and exports

Business America, Nov 9, 1987 by Marci Levin

Minnesota and the Commerce Department Form a Winning Team to Promote Development and Exports

Now that the Twins, confronting 150-to-1 odds before the season began, have won the World Series, Minnesotans may feel that nothing is beyond their reach. Displaying the same spirit of determination as the baseball players, state offices have joined forces with the U.S. Department of Commerce in an aggressive program to promote the state's economic development and expand exports.

In the spring of 1987, as the Minnesota Twins were preparing for their championship season, Governor Rudy Perpich, Senators Dave Durenberger and Rudy Boschwitz, and the entire Minnesota Congressional delegation wrote to the late Secretary of Commerce Malcolm Baldrige. They asked for his cooperation in developing a closer working relationship with the Commerce Department to strengthen Minnesota's economy, in both the short- and long-term. They described an approach that would draw from several agencies of state government as well as the Commerce Department.

The Minnesota officials wanted the Department's cooperation in implementing an action plan to help improve the state's economy and its competitiveness in world markets. They requested a state-specific, comprehensive, abstract of Department-wide economic data and information. And they wanted technical assistance on a number of projects that would include both Commerce and Minnesota staff.

States Paly Increasing Role

That Minnesota contacted the Department of Commerce for information and technical assistance should not come as a surprise. It is part of a worldwide trend in decentralizing economic decision-making. European nations are selling state-owned companies to the private sector. In the United States, state and local governments are playing an increasing role in economic development in ways not imagined a decade ago. States are creating innovative development policies to compete in the global marketplace.

Many states now run their own venture capital funds or work cooperatively with private venture firms. States are also promoting advanced technology development and utilization, which will have a critical impact on U.S. industries. Thirty-four states operate trade offices in foreign countries; another six have such offices on the drawing board.

Commerce/State Initiative

At the same time, the Department of Commerce is committed to establishing a more creative and responsive delivery system of technical assistance and information to supplement state economic planning, development, and policies. The Department can offer states technical assistance and timely, consolidated, easily accessible data and data products--from the largest single information gathering entity in the world.

Almost a year before the Minnesota letter to Secretary Baldrige, Deputy Secretary Clarence J. Brown established the Department of Commerce/State Initiative to coordinate all Department activities, programs, and information involving states.

This program, which operates out of the office of the Assistant Secretary for Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs, offers a Department-wide approach that cuts across all activities and disciplines, to develop and transfer our products in a timely fashion to any state that requests them.

This new initiative is a more creative and responsive means of providing technical assistance and information to the states. Deputy Secretary Brown has commented that the Department considers this effort a strong practical response to President Reagan's Federalism program.

Brown also chartered the Federal/State Initiative Coordinating Committee, one of five committees charged with reviewing specific Department-wide issues. Deputy Assistant Secretary for Intergovernmental Affairs Mary Ann T. Knauss was asked to chair the Committee. The Department of Commerce/State Initiative serves as the staff for the Committee, under the leadership of Knauss. Committee members, designated by each Commerce agency head, meet monthly.

Even before the arrival of the Minnesota letter, the Committee was responding to state economic development efforts by proposing an agency-wide, cross-cutting project--spearheaded by the Census Bureau--to disseminate data on a state-by-state basis. Early drafts received encouragement, guidance, and support from elected officials and economic planners in almost 40 states. The Committee envisioned an annual state-by-state series of Department-wide, standardized data and information abstracts.

Within weeks of Secretary Baldrige's letter to support cooperation with Minnesota, Commerce and Minnesota went to work developing a joint action plan. The Commerce /Minnesota Initiative has two thrusts. The first, now completed, is the Minnesota Statistical and Economic Abstract, a prototype for the data publication series the Committee was developing. The second is a series of ongoing joint technical assistance projects.

The Minnesota Statistical and Economic Abstract. Since the Department was already working cooperatively with Minnesota, that state was selected to be the prototype for the data publication, under development by the Committee.