MACKINAC CITY – Not just the state but local communities have to aggressively pursue economic development globally, greater Detroit elected leaders said Friday at the Detroit Regional Chamber meeting.
Holding their traditional roundtable discussion, Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano, Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson, Macomb County Commission Chair Nancy White and, new to the group, Windsor, Ontario, Mayor Eddie Francis, all said the area must market itself both cooperatively and competitively.
“All the counties and cities should regionalize when they can,” Patterson said, but communities should not be shy about taking efforts to market themselves when they can.
In fact, with some countries like China, the leaders said communities have to make sure they are not too late to begin their efforts. The country already has many American governments there trying to sell their regions.
Ficano said Wayne County has made a major effort in China, having opened two trade offices already and planning on opening a third.
He said foreign-based companies will be like immigrants who like to move into areas where others of their countrymen live. The first wave of companies has come to the United States, he said, and when the second wave arrives they will want to locate where the first companies have come.
Kilpatrick said that while the focus has lately been on China and Asia in general, communities should also consider building relations with Africa.
And Francis said the communities have to be willing to sell all of their assets to attract companies. He said he succeeded in convincing a physician to locate his practice from Toronto to Windsor because the doctor was a huge sports fan and was convinced it was easier getting to Detroit arenas than it was Toronto’s.
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