The Council on Competitiveness Applauds the President’s Continued Commitment to U.S. Manufacturing Competitiveness

Lisa Hanna
Vice President, Communications
Council on Competitiveness
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Washington, D.C – President Obama today announced the unique focus areas for the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI); an important program aimed at leveraging the strengths and assets of particular regions across the country, while also bringing together companies, universities, community colleges, national laboratories and government to partner and co-invest in the development of world-leading manufacturing technologies.

The focus areas for the first three manufacturing institutes, led by the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of Energy, include:

•    Next Generation Power Electronics Manufacturing
•    Digital Manufacturing & Design Innovation
•    Lightweight & Modern Metals Manufacturing

Click here to read more about the above institutes and how they represent an opportunity for the United States to maintain global competitiveness, technological leadership and provide for jobs.

The President’s proposed plan calls for 15, dynamically linked, regional manufacturing clusters across the United States. An open, competitive, merit-based process will select the institutes.

“We applaud the President for prioritizing manufacturing and for embracing the Council’s recommendations in our MAKE report, including our call for the creation and implementation of these manufacturing hubs.” said Deborah L. Wince-Smith, President and CEO, Council on Competitiveness. “These public-private partnerships will bring together businesses, academia, the government and other key stakeholders in our nation’s innovation-based manufacturing economy to deploy the most advanced technologies and combined resources to improve prospects for domestic job growth and global competitiveness.”

Today’s announcement comes on the heels of the recent launch of a multi-year partnership between the Council and the Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE).

The American Energy and Manufacturing Competitiveness (AEMC) Partnership is part of EERE's Clean Energy Manufacturing Initiative (CEMI), focused on two major goals: increasing U.S. competitiveness in the production of clean energy products, and strengthening U.S. manufacturing competitiveness across the board by increasing energy productivity.

“Like the NNMI, the AEMC Partnership is a critical platform bringing together the public and private sectors with a specific focus on energy and manufacturing competitiveness,” said Wince-Smith. “This important partnership is an opportunity to leverage this historic time in our nation’s energy history to develop real solutions to our nation’s energy and manufacturing challenges; something that cannot be solved alone either by government or the private sector.”

The Council and EERE will work together across the country in the AEMC Partnership through a set of progressive dialogues to define key barriers, challenges and problems in the manufacturing of clean energy products and energy efficient products – and then generate potential models for scalable, public-private partnerships. The AEMC Partnership will also launch a major energy and manufacturing summit at the end of 2013.

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ABOUT THE COUNCIL ON COMPETITIVENESS

The Council on Competitiveness 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 through the creation of high-value economic activity in the United States. The Council is a non-partisan and non-governmental organization.