Commissioner Murman quoted in this Tampa Tribune article on Global Trade Symposium:
Business News
Symposium theme: Tampa Bay businesses must work together to boost exports
By Yvette C. Hammett | Tribune Staff
Published: October 30, 2014 | Updated: October 30, 2014 at 09:16 PM
TAMPA — It took the Great Recession to shake the Florida business community out of its comfortable snooze. Many of the companies that survived it did so because of their overseas business dealings, said Doug Davidson, regional global commercial banker for Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Florida’s road to success depends on its ability to compete outside of its borders, he said. Davidson helped lead an export pep rally of sorts on Thursday at Port Tampa Bay, with some 200 attendees. The recurring theme: the Tampa Bay business community must work in unison as a region if it is to become an export powerhouse.
“Florida is not just a state at the bottom of the country, but one jutting out in to the Atlantic and the Caribbean,” Davidson said. It is the 20th largest economy on earth and 80 percent of the global purchasing power is outside of Florida, outside of the United States. Much of it is accessible by ship and plane, he said.
Davidson helped the Florida Chamber Foundation pen a paper called Florida: Made for Trade, a document that looks at projected growth, demographics and economic trends, as well as the expansion of the Panama Canal, which is nearly complete.
“We need to move more trade through our ports and airports,” he said, noting that much of what is now shipped out of Florida is actually trucked here from manufacturing states like Georgia and Alabama. Moving manufacturing here means more jobs here and more exports from here, he said.
“For every 10 jobs we create through manufacturing, we get 20 additional jobs” from bankers, to retailers, to truck drivers and more, he said.
“We have the potential for 500,000 more jobs if we get global trade and logistics right,” added Tony Carvajal, with the Florida Chamber Foundation.
Back when Hillsborough County Commissioner Sandra Murman served in the Florida Legislature (1996-2004), no one talked about incentive packages for business, she said. “There is a new energy in the community. The recession was a total wake-up call. The climate has changed in the state to support economic development.
“It is our time, but it will only be as good as us getting the job done,” said Murman, who serves as a member of the Hillsborough County Port Authority. “We’ve got to have incentive packages lined up” and ready to lure new businesses here, she said.
In continuing the pep rally atmosphere, Tampa International Airport CEO Joe Lopano told the crowd that businesses can’t be afraid to take a stand, to invest in the future of the region. He urged local leaders to get on planes bound for South America and Europe and make trade connections.
Florida is the only state in the nation with an assistant secretary in the Department of Transportation overseeing intermodal (truck, rail and shipping) and logistics, said Port Tampa Bay CEO Paul Anderson. That will help Florida capture global trade, he said. “We are well positioned to capture new opportunities for the I-4 corridor, both going and coming from the port, he said.
Showing a map with a mass of distribution centers painted across Central Florida, Anderson noted that 60 percent of the merchandise going to those centers is entering the country through Long Beach, California, Savannah and Charleston. That cargo needs to be coming in through Florida, instead, he said.
“We are poised on the verge of something really special,” Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn told the crowd. “Over the last couple of years, we’ve planted the Tampa Bay flag around the world,” from Israel to Latin America, Germany and Switzerland, he said. “We’ve got to keep pushing… and tell the Tampa story to the world.
“Irrespective of what happens Tuesday (election day) this community must continue to grow and prosper” by coming together to boost business, he said.
