Posted by Mark Silva at 1:25 pm CST
Usually, when the U.S. government leads a trade mission of business people seeking new investment opportunities, they travel far and wide, sometimes to exotic lands and foreign cultures.
This time, they’re going to New Orleans. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez and Don Powell, the federal coordinator for Gulf Coast Rebuilding, announced today that they will lead a delegation of business people on a two-day tour of New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Houma, La., and Biloxi, Miss., May 4-5.
“It’s the business community, we believe, that is going to lead the way to rebuilding the Gulf Coast,” Gutierrez said during a conference call with reporters today.
Of course, shifting some focus toward the role that business will play in the redevelopment of the Gulf Coast could take some of the pressure off the lack of progress that government has made. President Bush plans another tour of the hurricane-stricken region on Wednesday.
Congress has authorized tax incentives for businesses investing in the Gulf Coast region, as part of the Gulf Opportunity Zone Act of 2005 that Bush signed in December – this was one of the proposals he made as he stood in New Orleans’ Jackson Square for a nationally televised address in mid-September.
But businesses haven’t leapt at the opportunity to invest in a place where thousands of tons of debris remain to be removed and which, in many parts of the Mississippi coast, looks as if Hurricane Katrina struck only yesterday. There is only one grocery store open in Bay St. Louis, Miss., one of the debris-strewn stops along Bush’s last visits to the region, a local reporter reminded Gutierrez and Powell on the conference call today.
Powell, who toured the Mississippi coast on Sunday, said it struck him that, if he were a business person, what a great opportunity for investment this area would pose.
So the Commerce Department today opened an invitation to businesses that already have invested at least $5 million in the region or have the ability to invest $5 million or more to join them on the May mission.
Typically, when the government leads a trade mission to another country, it takes 10 to 20 business people, Gutierrez says. This one could include retailers, real estate investors, construction companies and many more. “It will be a broad base of businesses that are interested in the Gulf Coast,” Gutierrez said.
“This is a unique opportunity for American business to go to the Gulf Coast to look for opportunities,” Powell said. “This is a win not only for the companies that will be investing there but the people that need jobs.”
