WHY I BELIEVE FLORIDA IS SUCH A GREAT PLACE TO LIVE, WORK, PLAY

I enjoy reading regional business magazines, such as Florida Trend because, for me, they re-ignite the excitement I hold for Florida’s economic and cultural future—especially where I live, work and play in South Florida.

A two-page advertisement in June’s Florida Trend promotes the “Roadmap to Florida’s Future.” Of course, I couldn’t resist and visited their website and was rewarded with invitations to upcoming planning forums to be a voice in the economic development priorities for specific Florida regions such as my own southeast sector, and was offered the full 48 page 2007-20012 Strategic Plan for Florida’s Economic Development. There is much, much more to view on the site, but today I want to outline the Strategic Plan for you. If you live in South Florida, or are planning to move here, this information is incentive enough to call Florida, home.

The plan begins with five Priority Recommendations for Florida:

1. Build World Class Talent – beginning with a concentrated curriculum in K-12 grade schools, establishing industry driven, regionally focused workforce education and investing in university research.

2. Ensure Business Climate Competitiveness - by addressing insurance issues, affordable workforce housing, and strengthen the competitive business climate with tax credits and incentives for innovation and productivity.

3. Promote Sustainable Development to Ensure Florida’s Superior Quality of Life - by promoting smart growth and land management, improve Florida’s multimodal infrastructure to assess mass transit needs including seaports, airports, trucks and railroads, assess long-term growth needs to consider private means of support in place of government, and provide innovative transportation solutions for “speed to market” services for businesses.

4. Invest in Florida’s Innovation Economy – with world-class research institutes and facilities, innovative economy legislation from the governor and legislature, promote entrepreneurship and capitalize on emerging technology opportunities, and addressing the need for seed and venture capital in Florida.

5. Establish Florida as a Pre-eminent Global Hub – by addressing Homeland Security restrictions on Florida port and trade cities, promote International branding from increased, positive perceptions received from international business executives, by capitalizing on free trade agreements, expanding non-traditional export markets, increasing foreign-direct investment in Florida and global marketing.

This just skims the details. For more detailed information, please visit www.eflorida.com/Roadmap, and see how clear Florida is on its future. Welcome to my back yard!