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Northern Great Plains Leaders Sign Historic Collaboration Agreement
2007-11-04
FOR RELEASE:May 14, 2002 at 2:00 pm
Contact: Jo A. Gast 218-281-8453
jgast@ngplains.org
Northern Great Plains Inc., Crookston, MN 56716
http://www.ngplains.org
Northern Great Plains Leaders Sign Historic Collaboration Agreement
MINNEAPOLIS—Representatives of five states and two Canadian provinces on the Northern Great Plains have signed a letter of intent to collaborate on transportation and economic issues.
On behalf of departments of transportation and economic development agencies of Iowa, Manitoba, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, Saskatchewan and South Dakota, department heads or their designees met today in Minneapolis to sign the letter of intent to collaborate and to begin planning the next steps.
“This was a historic meeting,” said Don Bottemiller, Chair of the Board of Northern Great Plains Inc., a regional non-profit organization that works to build a strong economic future on the Northern Great Plains through developing and implementing regional solutions to issues, concerns and opportunities in The Northern Great Plains. “Voluntary collaboration on matters of common concern, across state and national borders, and across agency boundaries, is the wave of the future. Sitting down today face to face with our counterparts within the Region will make future cooperation on economic and transportation issues that much easier.”
The economic advantage of collaboration within the Region was underscored by findings of a three-year Trade and Transportation project managed by Northern Great Plains Inc. (NGP Inc.).
Based on the most recent, comprehensive North American Industrial Classification System data, the project found that trade within the Region grew by 571% ($56 billion to $376 billion) between 1992 and 1997, while goods and services exported from the Region grew by only 91% ($151 billion to $288 billion).
NGP Inc. President Jerry Nagel, told the dignitaries that he saw the signing of the letter of intent as another step towards guaranteeing a prosperous future for the Region. “In a global economy,” Nagel said, “each state and province will gain competitive advantage by cooperating with regional partners.”
Prior to the signing, NGP Inc. released its third report of the project, Toward New Horizons: Transportation and Trade—Moving the Northern Great Plains Region to a Stronger Economic Future. This report identifies major trends that will shape the future of information technology, agriculture and natural resources, manufacturing, and energy and the environment. Each of these sectors depends upon and also influences transportation. At the conclusion of each chapter, recommendations are made to strengthen the economic position of the Region in light of the identified trends.
Bottemiller also noted that “the message of the recommendations in the report is that, if regional business, academic and government leaders wish to be in a position to take advantage of the opportunities these trends present, they will have to actively champion policies and investments that align the Region with the direction and strength of the trends.”
The project began in 1999, when Northern Great Plains Inc. received funding from the Federal Highway Administration in the U. S. Department of Transportation to analyze current and future opportunities for regional and international trade development and then correlate those opportunities with regional transportation needs.
The project was titled Transportation, Trade, and Economic Development: Maximizing Future Opportunities in the Northern Great Plains. The work was done jointly by Northern Great Plains Inc. and the Northeast-Midwest Institute of Washington, D.C. The project was divided into three phases. The first phase created a baseline picture of the Region’s transportation infrastructure. Released in July 2000, it was titled An Overview of Transportation Infrastructure and Services in the Northern Great Plains. The second report, Trade Patterns and the Economy of the Northern Great Plains: A Baseline Report, was released in October 2001.
Copies of the three reports are available from Northern Great Plains Inc., Box 475, Crookston, MN 56716 or at http://www.ngplains.org.
