As the United States continues on the road to economic recovery, University representatives stressed education as a path toward increased global competiveness at a local manufacturing and infrastructure strategy discussion.
The Council on Competitiveness, Alstom, and the University invited leaders from the business, labor and academic communities for an “Out of the Blue Strategic Manufacturing Dialogue.” The group discussed investing in infrastructure to provide the foundation for a new generation of U.S. manufacturing that will impact the country’s ability to compete in global markets.
Dr. Will Sutton, Dean of the UTC College of Engineering and Computer Sciences, reinforced that education plays a major role in the push for competitiveness.
“Some organizations rank the U.S. as 19th worldwide in math and science education,” he said. “We have to take steps today to ensure that companies emphasizing a trained, highly-skilled workforce in their decision to locate new manufacturing operations have confidence in America’s ability to get the job done.”
Deborah Wince-Smith, President and CEO of the Council on Competitiveness, told attendees, “The infrastructure that fueled a century of American innovation is not just aging, it is lagging behind a wave of modernization sweeping across the globe. Advanced manufacturing cannot function without highly-integrated networks of people and technology, state-of-the-art control and support systems, and robust, secure communications.”
The Chattanooga forum explored specifics aspects of America’s business support infrastructure, such as:
- Specialized energy, transportation and water systems
- Railways and transit, commuter and mass transit systems
- Electric power networks and emerging smart grids
“Alstom is a perfect example of how the right infrastructure investments attract businesses that cascade benefits throughout the local and national economies,” added Pierre Gauthier, President & CEO of Alstom in the U.S. and Canada. “Our decision to build a new $300 million turbine factory in Chattanooga was driven by the area’s superb transportation infrastructure and other factors that make it possible to deliver sophisticated, large-scale power generation equipment to customers throughout North America.”
Recommendations assembled during the ‘Out of the Blue’ dialogues will be incorporated into the National Manufacturing Strategy, which the Council on Competitiveness will present during the National Manufacturing Summit in Washington, D.C. on December 7-8 2011.
