April 11, 2014
This week, as the cherry blossoms bloom here in DC, we made
two very exciting announcements which reinforce the Commerce Department’s Open
for Business Agenda. On Monday, we announced the 11 inaugural members of the
Presidential Ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurship (PAGE) Initiative. These
Entrepreneurial Ambassadors are successful American businesspeople eager to
share their knowledge and experience to help develop the next generation of
entrepreneurs at home and abroad. On Thursday, the Secretary celebrated
Lufthansa Technik’s announcement that they will build a maintenance, repair,
and operations facility in Puerto Rico that will create 400 permanent jobs.
This was a big win for SelectUSA and clearly demonstrates that the United States
is Open for Business. One final note, NOAA’s Climate.gov website was nominated
for two Webby Awards, which recognize high quality websites. I would encourage
you to vote for them in the Government category, and the Green category. -Bruce
Secretary Pritzker Announces Inaugural
Members of the Presidential Ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurship Initiative - Secretary Pritzker chaired the first-ever
meeting of the Presidential Ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurship (PAGE)
initiative. Members will participate in outreach and mentorship
activities to help promote start-up culture, and energize their own personal
and professional networks to challenge and inspire budding entrepreneurs, and
raise awareness of the many resources available to them. See the complete list of Entrepreneurial Ambassadors on the PAGE webpage.
Startup Diplomacy:
Announcing the Presidential Ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurship - Steve Case, Entrepreneurial Ambassador and
successful businessman, wrote a guest blog post about why he’s proud to join
the Presidential Ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurship (PAGE) initiative.
SelectUSA: Investing in the
United States, Creating Jobs, and Spurring Economic Growth - Secretary Pritzker and Jeff Zients, Director of the
National Economic Council and Assistant to the President for Economic Policy, wrote
about the Lufthansa Technik announcement of a significant new investment in
Puerto Rico. This investment demonstrates how efforts to deploy the full
resources of the federal government to win job-creating investments in U.S.
states and territories pay off. Through the advocacy of several high-level U.S.
officials, including the Vice President and the Secretary of Commerce, as well
as the work of SelectUSA, the government of Puerto Rico was able to secure this
new investment, which will create up to 400 permanent jobs and strengthen
Puerto Rico’s burgeoning civil aviation sector.
Join the Conversation on Investment - Vinai Thummalapally, Executive Director of
SelectUSA, outlines how SelectUSA is really upping its game when it comes to
online engagement around investment and invites you to join the conversation on
Twitter at #SelectUSA.
Big Data is Big Business for
Commerce - Mark Doms, Under
Secretary for Economic Affairs, wrote a guest blog post about recent findings
from the Open Data 500 Project that hundreds of American companies are using
Commerce data every day to innovate and deliver important goods and services to
their customers.
First Americas
Competitiveness Exchange Encourages Collaboration, Drives Innovation and
Entrepreneurship in the Western Hemisphere – A guest blog post by Walter Bastian, Deputy
Assistant Secretary for The Western Hemisphere, about the first Americas
Competitiveness Exchange on Innovation and Entrepreneurship. As part of the
Exchange, senior officials from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s International
Trade Administration (ITA) and Economic Development Administration (EDA) last
week led a delegation of 45 business and government leaders from 20 Latin
American and Caribbean countries on a tour across the Southeast United States.
Making
It Easier to Clear Customs in Latin America - Issues like long
customs-clearance times, inconsistent interpretation of customs regulations,
and subjectivity of customs inspectors can add to the time and cost of the
exporting process. These costs can especially affect small business exporters.
To address these problems, the International Trade Administration (ITA) is
working alongside U.S. Customs and Border Protection, governments across Latin
America, and other public and private sector partners on the Customs
Modernization and Border Management Reform Program.
MBDA
Hosts Women’s Business Roundtable - Women leaders from the African
American, Asian, Hispanic and Native American business communities showcased
their expertise and entrepreneurial achievements during the “Power and Promise
of the Minority Women in Business” roundtable discussion in Washington, DC,
hosted by the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) on March 31.
Commodity
Spotlight: Painting Exports — The Census Bureau’s Heather Hrytsyshyn blogs
that the United States has exported $48.2 billion in paintings over the last 10
years. American painters created a little more than half of these artworks.
NOAA
Climate.gov nominated for Webby Awards - The International Academy of the
Digital Arts & Sciences has chosen the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration's (NOAA) Climate.gov as one of five nominees for the annual
Webby Awards for online excellence. They were nominated in both the
'Government' and 'Green' categories.
February
2014 wholesale inventories were $518.3 billion, up 0.5 percent from the
revised January level and up 4.7 percent from February 2013. Sales were $436.1
billion, up 0.7 percent from the revised January level and up 3.1 percent from
February 2013.
Commerce Data in the News: The
Washington Post writes about how the
Census Bureau’s Center for Applied Technology is changing the way the agency is
disseminating data and interacting with the public in “Census
Bureau Creates Its Own Slice of Silicon Valley.”
NYU’s
GovLab’s Open Data Project released a
study of 500 private sector companies that use government data to power their
business. According to those findings, 120 companies spanning 16 economic
sectors use Commerce data – far surpassing the number of corporate users at any
other federal agency. Fedscoop’s
article was “Commerce
puts best foot forward in open data” and Information Week said, “Feds
Seek to Expand Open Data.”
Bloomberg News, citing the Census Bureau’s Annual Survey of State
Government Tax Collections, writes that states took in 6.1 percent more revenue in fiscal 2013
than they did the year before in “U.S. State Government Tax Revenue Rises Third
Year to Record.”
CNN’s
Ruben Navarrette cites Census Bureau population estimates and
projections to illustrate how Hispanics will soon overtake whites as the
majority race or ethnic group in the Golden State in “California’s
Hispanic Milestone.”
The Wall
Street Journal cites Census Bureau business statistics in an article about
how the decline in business formation is likely driven by improving labor
conditions in “Decline in New Businesses Suggests Satisfied
Workers.”
Data Releases Next Week: Advance Monthly Retail Sales:
March (Census); Manufacturing and Trade-Inventories and Sales: February (Census);
New Residential Construction: March (Census)
Starting on Saturday, Vinai Thummalapally, Executive
Director of SelectUSA, will lead a group of more than 20 U.S. economic
development organizations to attend the inaugural Pearl River Delta SelectUSA
Road Show in Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Guangzhou, China. The event will be
attended by potential investors and companies from the region poised to invest.
On Tuesday, USPTO Deputy Director Michelle Lee
will speak at a Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) public roundtable designed
to educate the public on PTAB activities and processes at the USPTO campus in
Alexandra, VA. The nationwide series of roundtables are designed to educate the
public and collect feedback about the America Invents Act (AIA) trial
proceedings. USPTO will host the second in the PTAB series at the New York Law
School campus in New York, NY on Thursday.
On Wednesday, BEA Deputy Director Brian Moyer
will discuss new economic statistics BEA will soon unveil to help businesses
and consumers make smart financial decisions during a luncheon speech at the
Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and the Atlanta Economics Club.
On Thursday, Secretary Pritzker will deliver
remarks entitled, “America's Economic Future in the Asia-Pacific,” at the Johns
Hopkins University’s Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies
(SAIS) in Washington, DC.
Also on Thursday, Secretary Pritzker will speak
at the White House Business Council Fly-In on American Manufacturing about
“Commerce Priorities for the Future of Manufacturing.” Under Secretary of
Economic Affairs Mark Doms will also attend and give a macro-economic overview.
Secretary Pritzker
and the Presidential Ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurship meet with
President Obama in the White House's Roosevelt Room.
BONUS PHOTO OF
THE WEEK
Penny
Pritzker, Alejandro Garcia Padilla, August Wilhelm Henningsen, and Peter Ammon
attend a signing ceremony for an agreement to create a new Lufthansa
Aviation Facility in Puerto Rico at German Ambassador Residence on April 10,
2014 in Washington, DC.
The
Older Generation - The Census Bureau produced a graphic this week that
compares the nation’s 55,000 centenarians to the rest of the 65-and-older
population.
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