Monday, November 8, 2004 Officials try to lure German businesses
Michigan leaders will travel to the country to boost Michigan's economy By Shawn D. Lewis / The Detroit News In an effort to drum up business opportunities in Michigan, and Oakland County in particular, Gov. Jennifer Granholm will travel to Germany with Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson later this month. They are not necessarily looking to lure businesses to relocate their entire operations to Michigan. They will, however, encourage companies to expand into this area. The state is sending a delegation of 10 people at an estimated cost of $40,000, said Michael Shore of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, who said that none of the money will come from taxpayer dollars. Kenneth Rogers, executive director of Automation Alley and deputy county executive in Oakland County, is in favor of the mission. "We are attracting new technology from all over the world. Searching within other countries is the right thing to do," he said. Patterson said this will be the first trip under the auspices of the Emerging Sectors Project, a program he announced earlier this year. Patterson said at the time that Michigan has lost more than 150,000 manufacturing jobs since 2001 to places like Mexico and Asia ." To ensure that Oakland County remains what Patterson called "the epicenter of job creation and business activity in the state," he asked the director of community and economic development to identify 10 emerging and promising business sectors for the 21st Century that Oakland County could tap into for future job growth. "We found that 60 percent of the companies we'd like to have in Oakland County have no presence in the United States, and that was an alarming finding," Patterson said. Granholm spokeswoman Liz Boyd said the goal of the mission is to improve Michigan's economy. "This is one more step the governor is taking to grow jobs in Michigan . ," she said. You can reach Shawn D. Lewis at (248) 647-8825 or [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
