Inaugural National Competitiveness Forum Brings Together Leading Voices on the Economy

Immediate Action Needed to Improve America’s Global Competitiveness and Future Prosperity

• Opening of National Competitiveness Forum (NCF) 2012, Bloomberg Business Week Videos
• Deborah-Wince Smith, CEO, Council on Competitiveness, Bloomberg TV
• Sam Allen, President & CEO, Deere on U.S. Competitiveness and manufacturing, Bloomberg TV
• Nicholas Pinchuck, President & CEO, Snap-on, on U.S. Competitiveness and manufacturing, Bloomberg TV
• Professor Michael Porter, Harvard Business School, on Competitiveness and the fiscal cliff, CNB
• Remarks to the Council on Competitiveness by Robert D. Hormats, Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Lisa Hanna
Vice President, Communications
Council on Competitiveness
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
202-383-9507

Washington, D.C. – The Council on Competitiveness today held its inaugural National Competitiveness Forum (NCF) at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. The NCF assembled top American leaders from industry, government, labor and academia to assess the state of American competitiveness. The Council’s NCF comes at a critical time given the start of a second term for the current Administration and a new Congress; as well as the essential need for the United States to better support its workers, fill the skills gap for manufacturing jobs and enact a long-term fiscal framework to reduce our national debt.

The NCF today was guided by the Council’s Clarion Call for Competitiveness, an urgent call to action which provides a strong and clear roadmap for policy makers to enhance America’s competitiveness and drive domestic investment and job creation. The Clarion Call points to a series of Council reports that lay out more than 200 recommendations highlighting critical actions to start us down the right path.

“By following these important recommendations, we have the potential for a new era of innovation, a resurgence of manufacturing, and the potential to keep and grow high-skilled jobs for this and the next generation,” said Deborah L. Wince-Smith, President & CEO, Council on Competiveness. “Today’s Forum provided a dynamic discussion on these important and urgent issues, all of which are directly tied to America’s prosperity and national security.”

The Council today also released the 2013 Global Manufacturing Competitiveness Index, a study done in collaboration with Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu (Deloitte). The Manufacturing Index contains responses from more than 550 CEOs and senior manufacturing executives and is part of the Council’s multi-year effort to better understand the drivers of global manufacturing competitiveness.

“What we’re seeing is that talent-driven innovation is the most critical driver of a nation’s competitiveness,” said Wince-Smith. “The quality and availability of scientists, researchers and engineers is key when it comes to being competitive in the global marketplace. We must invest in our future by investing in our workforce. The time to act is now.”

Our nation’s ability to compete also lies in our ability to innovate and commercialize technology.  The release of Key Findings from the Council’s Technology Leadership & Strategy Initiative (TLSI) represents a compilation of several years of work and lays out critical recommendations to the President, Congress and the private sector.

The Council’s TLSI is a powerful coalition of the nation’s top chief technology leaders from industry and their peers in academia, the national laboratories and government. The TLSI advances policies that help commercialize technology from research; it identifies strategic technologies and grand challenges on which America should lead; and it encourages more productive partnerships between America’s universities, companies and national laboratories.

The inaugural NCF kicked off with a dinner at the State Department in which two veteran United States Senators were honored for their distinguished careers and leadership on competitiveness.

Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) leaves the Senate after a distinguished 35-year career. His legacy of leadership in foreign policy, agriculture and nuclear threat reduction will long be remembered and appreciated by his colleagues, the American public and the world.  Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) has been a champion of science and technology policy for nearly three decades in the U.S. Senate. He was responsible for crafting much of the nation’s energy policy, from clean energy standards to the creation of ARPA-E.

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ABOUT THE COUNCIL ON COMPETITIVENESS

The Council on Competitiveness is a non-partisan and non-governmental organization. It is the only group of corporate CEOs, university presidents and labor leaders committed to the future prosperity of all Americans and enhanced U.S. competitiveness in the global economy