We haven't seen a lineup like this since the last Ozzfest.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke will headline a group of senior administration officials for a day of trade talk Feb. 17 as the U.S. Department of Commerce kicks off its multi-city
National Export Initiative Small Business Tour in Minneapolis. Local opening acts Governor Mark Dayton and Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak will also speak.
The tour is designed to further the Obama Administration's "New Markets, New Jobs" outreach, part of the National Export Initiative launched last year. Its goal: to create millions of new jobs by doubling exports in the next five years.
The conference will address export challenges specific to small and medium-sized businesses, which generated 20 percent of Minnesota's total exports of merchandise in 2008. Challenges include foreign competition and access to information, market research, and financing.
The daylong conference will feature panels on topics like federal resources and "lessons learned" from area businesses that have succeeded in expanding into overseas markets.
Asked to comment specifically on opportunities, resources and strategies for Twin Cities businesses, Department of Commerce officials pointed to the most recent
statistics on exports, jobs, and foreign investment in Minnesota.
Some key statistics include:
� Almost 20 percent of manufacturing workers in Minnesota depended on exports for their jobs in 2008, during which 6,814 companies exported goods from Minnesota. The vast majority (88 percent) were businesses with fewer than 500 employees.
� That year, foreign-controlled companies employed 97,200 Minnesota workers � 4.1 percent of the state's total private-industry employment.
� In 2009, Minnesota's merchandise exports shipments totaled $15.5 billion. Of that, $4.1 billion (26 percent) went to Canada, our largest foreign market. Computers and electronics accounted for $3.4 billion of that total (22 percent), followed by machinery manufactures ($2.4 billion), miscellaneous manufactures ($1.9 billion), and transportation equipment ($1.7 billion).
� The Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington statistical area (11 metro counties and two in Wisconsin) exported $9.3 billion in the first half of 2009 alone.
Source: U.S. Department of Commerce
Writer: Jeremy Stratton