The Chamber's three priorities: manufacturing, health care and transportation top our agenda.When this issue comes out, we'll be heading to Mackinac Island Mackinac Island Island in the Straits of Mackinac, southeastern Upper Peninsula of Michigan, U.S. It is 3 mi (5 km) long. It was an ancient Indian burial ground called Michilimackinac when the British built a fort there in 1780. After the U.S. for the 25th anniversary of the Detroit Regional Chamber's Mackinac Policy Conference. The theme of this year's conference is "Celebrating 25 years of courage, leadership and tough decisions." [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] I'm pleased to report that over the last few months, the Chamber has demonstrated these three qualities in a number of ways. This year, the Chamber's game plan included some serious developments around the issues of manufacturing, health care and transportation. We devoted immeasurable time and resources and pulled off the first-ever Great Lakes Great Lakes, group of five freshwater lakes, central North America, creating a natural border between the United States and Canada and forming the largest body of freshwater in the world, with a combined surface area of c.95,000 sq mi (246,050 sq km). Manufacturing Forum that brought together for the first time our governor, Jennifer Granholm <noinclude></noinclude> Jennifer Mulhern Granholm (born February 5, 1959 in Vancouver, British Columbia) is a Canadian-born American politician and the current Governor of the U.S. state of Michigan. , and the premier of Ontario The Premier of Ontario (sometimes Prime Minister of Ontario) is the first minister for the Canadian province of Ontario. The Premier is appointed by the Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario as the province's head of government, and presides over the Executive council or cabinet , Dalton McGuinty Dalton James Patrick McGuinty, Jr., MPP (born July 19, 1955, in Ottawa, Ontario) is a Canadian lawyer and politician and, since October 23, 2003, Premier of Ontario. He is the twenty-fourth premier of Ontario, and the second Roman Catholic to hold this office. . The forum discussed our region's most critical industry right now and what we can do to sustain and maintain jobs. The forum also resulted in the formation of the Council for Great Lakes Manufacturing which will carry out the action plan established relating to relating to relate prep → concernant relating to relate prep → bezüglich +gen, mit Bezug auf +acc image, workforce, innovation and borders and logistics. The Chamber will chair and facilitate this Council. With the help of Deloitte and the Heritage Foundation, we hosted another forum entitled en·ti·tle tr.v. en·ti·tled, en·ti·tling, en·ti·tles 1. To give a name or title to. 2. To furnish with a right or claim to something: , "Fixing the Health Care System," featuring national leaders from labor, business and government. As with the Manufacturing Forum, we're using what we learned to set the Chamber's health-care agenda for the next several years. During this year's conference, we'll be announcing a regional transportation initiative that will have a scope never before seen in the region. Transit is a major part but not the only part. We need to promote our location as a NAFTA NAFTA in full North American Free Trade Agreement Trade pact signed by Canada, the U.S., and Mexico in 1992, which took effect in 1994. Inspired by the success of the European Community in reducing trade barriers among its members, NAFTA created the world's center and improve all of the region's transportation infrastructure. These three agenda items--manufacturing, health care and transportation--together with a new leadership initiative will provide the basis of the Chamber's strategic goals for the next three years. First and foremost they will require that new collaborations be built. And, like the Mackinac Policy Conference, they will require courage, they will require leadership and they will require tough decisions. The Detroit Regional Chamber is prepared to take the lead. RELATED ARTICLE We're 'getting in the game' There's one other critical issue facing our region--our image. We have millions of visitors coming to this region over the next few years and I can't begin to tell you what an impact this could have on our region moving forward. It doesn't matter if you're not a baseball fan or a football fan or a basketball fan. What does matter is if you're a Detroit fan. No, we're not going to have businesses flocking to invest in our region, but we won't even be considered in the economic-development game if we don't do a good job--if our guests don't walk away saying what a great time they had in Detroit. So with a special section beginning on page 14 of this issue of the Detroiter, we're "getting in the game" to promote and support the efforts of the Detroit Super Bowl XL Host Committee. We hope you in the business community will do the same because the lessons we learn from this image and awareness campaign can be put to good use long after Super Bowl XL is just a memory. Richard E. Blouse Jr., CCE CCE Cornell Cooperative Extension CCE Corporate and Continuing Education CCE Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc. CCE Commission de Coopération Environnementale CCE Centre for Continuing Education CCE College of Continuing Education CCE Certified Computer Examiner President and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. Detroit Regional Chamber |
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