| Speech by Governor Kulongoski |
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| August 9, 2006 |
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Genentech to Oregon Event
Welcome Genentech to Oregon Event
REMARKS BY GOVERNOR TED KULONGOSKI
Wednesday, August 9, 2006
Thank you, Ron, for that kind introduction.
This is a great day for Oregon, Washington County, and the city of Hillsboro, and I’m delighted to be with you this morning.
I just want to take a moment to say a special thank-you to Jonathan Schleuter (“Schleeter”) and the Westside Economic Alliance for hosting this event, and for inviting me to participate.
It’s great to see so many old friends and familiar faces in the audience—especially on such a great day for Oregon. Thank you, Jonathan, for bringing us all together for this exciting event. And thanks to all of you for being here today.
It’s also an honor to help you welcome an extraordinary company to our state and this community.
Genentech is a bio-technology pioneer – and one of the premier life science companies in the world.
By choosing Oregon, Genentech will bolster our reputation as a leading center for progressive high-tech industries – and demonstrate once again that excellent companies know that Oregon is an excellent place to do business.
I want to express my gratitude to everyone who worked so hard to make this day possible – starting with the City of Hillsboro, the government of Washington County, and my economic development staff in state government.
And, of course, thank you, Genentech.
On behalf of all of the people of Oregon, let me welcome you to Team Oregon, which I think of as a visionary alliance of business, labor, education and government at all levels.
I’ve always been about hope and optimism, with my eyes toward the future not in the past through the rearview mirror.
That’s why my goal – and the goal of Team Oregon – is to provide opportunity and prosperity to every Oregonian through education, workforce training and family wage jobs.
So to our friends at Genentech I say: By joining Team Oregon you are helping strengthen Oregon’s economy.
At the same time, we’re proud to be part of your lifesaving work. Proud to have Genentech as a major industrial partner of our health sciences sector. And very proud that you have chosen to come to Oregon.
As all of you know, we’re here today to celebrate an agreement under Oregon’s Strategic Investment Program that will bring Genentech to Oregon.
In every sense, this agreement is a tribute to cooperation among governments and the private sector.
What we’re seeing today is another chapter in Oregon’s ongoing success story – a story of progress and economic recovery; of opportunity, hope and competitiveness; . . .
. . . and of thousands of new jobs – and dozens of new companies that have put down roots in Oregon.
This Oregon success story is no accident.
When I took office in 2003, I directed the state’s economic development team to engage the private sector and local governments in creating jobs.
At that time Oregon had an unemployment rate of 8.6 percent – the highest in the country.
I set a target of creating 17,000 new jobs in Oregon during my first term in office.
To reach that goal, we set out to expand and attract diversity to Oregon’s economic base by new industries, companies, investments and ideas to Oregon. We knew it wouldn’t be easy, and we knew the competition from other states would be fierce.
We couldn’t rely on any single magic bullet. We needed to address the problems of government red tape and costly regulation—needed to confront the need to create jobs now—not ten, or even five, years from now. We needed to make the phrase “time is of the essence” our motto.
This was a big mountain to climb. But we didn’t shrink from the challenge.
We rolled up our sleeves, went to work, and made it our business to help existing businesses stay or expand here.
At the same time, we launched an aggressive effort to attract new businesses to our state.
During those three and half years, the state’s caseload in business retention, recruitment and expansion grew five-fold – which shows just how seriously we took the challenge to strengthen business and create jobs.
Today, you can see the results everywhere you look.
Oregon didn’t gain 17,000 new jobs, . . .
. . . we gained 100,000 new jobs! We now have the fifth-fastest-growing state economy in America.
How did we do it? In 2003, with strong bipartisan support from the Legislature, we created the largest public works project in Oregon since we built our share of the Interstate Highway system.
I’m talking about a 2.5-billion-dollar investment in repairing and upgrading roads and bridges throughout the state. Along with the dollars appropriated to Oregon under the Federal Highway Reauthorization Act—Oregon will invest over $5 billion into transportation infrastructure over the next six years.
Thanks to this investment, we’re making the movement of goods and people safer, more efficient and more profitable for Oregon’s businesses. And we’re putting thousands of Oregonians to work in rewarding, family-wage jobs.
In 2005, our public investment in infrastructure continued. Again with bipartisan support, we will invest a half-billion in capital construction at our community colleges and universities. This was the largest capitol construction project in state history.
Through ConnectOregon, we’re investing 100-million in upgrades to port facilities, railroads, airports and transit systems throughout all of Oregon.
And we’ll do it again with ConnectOregon II! In the upcoming legislative session in 2007/
We’ve attracted wonderful new companies to Oregon, and they’ve brought thousands of new jobs and major investments to our state – companies like Amy’s kitchen, Loew’s, Cardinal Glass, Royal Caribbean, Yahoo, Wachovia, Google and MathStar.
We have continued to diversify our economic base by our investment in ONAMI, Opensourse Developmental and in renewable energy technology.
Now we have Genentech. And I said earlier, Genentech coming to Oregon is no accident. It’s the result of hard work. It’s the result of vision and commitment. It’s the result of leadership.
What does Genentech mean to Oregon?
First of all, this great company will become the cornerstone of Oregon’s private-sector bio-science industry. Initially, the expansion into Washington County will generate 250 new jobs, and I’m confident that number will grow.
I believe we will see an influx of growing – but smaller – companies that will find niches in the orbit of Genentech.
We expect that for every one new job Genentech creates, three new jobs will emerge in other sectors.
That’s good news for Washington County – and for all of Oregon.
Construction of the Genentech facility will provide work for 2,000 construction workers, who – in turn – will stimulate the local economy when they patronize businesses in their neighborhoods and throughout the metro area.
Over the fifteen-year life of this Strategic Investment Program agreement, Genentech’s operation will pump 200-hundred million dollars a year into Oregon’s economy – for a total of about 3-billion dollars.
By anyone’s measurement, that’s a huge plus for Oregon.
I’m confident that the Hillsboro City Council and the Washington County Commission will quickly pass resolutions in support of this agreement, so the Oregon Economic Development Commission can certify it and help Genentech get started building their facility.
Before closing, I want to make one final point.
Even though we’re here today to celebrate hard work and successful negotiations, we’re also here to celebrate the future – and to renew our commitment to making Oregon’s economy grow.
We’re here to celebrate hope, opportunity and competitiveness – not only for the scientists and engineers whose ideas drive Genentech, but also for the working men and women of Hillsboro and the surrounding communities, as well as their families.
When a company like Genentech establishes its presence in a community, the people who live there see new possibilities and new choices on the horizon.
That’s why I have pursued economic development so aggressively since becoming your Governor.
I want Oregonians to have choices and possibilities. I want them to have opportunities. I want them to have the realistic hope for a prosperous future. And I want them to live in a state that can always compete – and win – in the global marketplace.
That’s why I will pursue my economic development strategy as aggressively in the future as I have the last four years.
That means creating the Education Enterprise, with its emphasis on excellence, workforce training and retraining, and all parts of the system working together.
We must give young and old alike the education and skills they need, . . .
. . . and that great companies like Genentech are looking for.
I will also continue to push public works projects like ConnectOregon II, because I know – and you know too – that the best social program is a good job.
We will move forward in making industrial sites ready for development, providing attractive opportunities for new businesses and industries to relocate, while helping existing ones expand.
In a few months, we’ll reach our goal of 50 new sites – which we expect will generate 1,200 new jobs and more than 250-million in new investment in Oregon.
But we need many more of these project-ready sites, and we need them quickly. We’ll work hard to meet that critical need.
In the coming term, I’ll work with regional economic development organizations around Oregon to certify more shovel ready sites, and we’ll make the process even smoother, more efficient and more economical.
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Since 1993, our Strategic Investment Program has led to more than 15-billion in new investment throughout Oregon. It has created more than 12,000 new jobs. Next term, we’ll set a new goal—to attract another 25-billion in investment before the year 2025.
We’ll move forward with new Enterprise Zone designations to build on the spectacular success of this program – a program that saw 94 new projects develop in just a single year, beginning in 2004, with nearly 4,000 new jobs.
We’ll work to bring even more investment into Oregon’s communities with this valuable program.
We’ll intensify our effort to implement the Oregon Business Plan, with its focus on high-return business clusters like high-tech software, value-added forest products, manufacturing, sports apparel, food-processing, tourism and travel.
We have reorganized OECDD to emphasize these clusters, to attract international investment to Oregon, and to market the products of these industries around the world.
Looking ahead, we will fashion a fully integrated business-development strategy that bolsters the position of these critical clusters in the global economy.
What you’ve seen – and what you’ll continue to see – is state government engaging the business community and world markets.
We’ll be aggressive – and professional – just as the private sector would do.
We have traveled overseas to meet with our key trading partners, carrying the message that Oregon’s products are superb, and that Oregon is a great place to do business.
Today, I renew my commitment to go anywhere in the world, and talk to anyone who’ll listen, to promote the export and sale of Oregon-made goods, attract investment in Oregon business, and create jobs for Oregon’s people.
That’s what economic development is all about – opportunity, competitiveness and hope.
Together, we can realize this vision, and solidify Oregon’s prosperity for generations to come.
Congratulations to Washington County Chair Tom Brian, to Hillsboro Mayor Tom Hughes, to the executive leadership of Genentech, and to everyone who had a hand in making this dream come true.
Thank you very much.
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