Pritzker traveling across the country, engaging with business and thought leaders, academics and Department of Commerce employees On Tuesday, July 30, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker will visit Albany, NY and Hartford, CT on the second leg of her nationwide listening tour. During the tour, she’s traveling across the country to meet with businesses and thought leaders, entrepreneurs, academics and Department of Commerce employees. While in Albany and Hartford, she’ll hear from these groups about their priorities, concerns and ideas on how the public and private sectors can work together to strengthen the economy and create American jobs.
Secretary Pritzker launched her listening tour earlier this month in Colorado.
“As Secretary of Commerce, my goal is to serve as a bridge to the business community – both domestically and abroad – so that we can work together to strengthen the economy and create jobs and opportunities for all Americans,” said Secretary Pritzker. “I intend to leverage the sum of my experiences as an entrepreneur, a business leader, and a citizen deeply committed to American competitiveness to help strengthen the Department and the government-wide leadership it provides in areas such as manufacturing, attracting business investment, innovation, and exporting.” In Albany, Secretary Pritzker will visit SEMATECH and the College of NanoScale Engineering (CNSE). SEMATECH is a consortium of leading semiconductor device, equipment, and materials manufacturers and university partners from around the globe working on collaborative research on computer chip technology. CNSE is part of the State College of New York (SUNY) system and is home to the world’s most advanced education, research, and economic development enterprise targeting nanoelectronics and nanotechnology innovations. Both SEMATECH and CNSE are models of how the public and private sectors can work together effectively, advancing innovation, industry collaboration and investment in the United States. In visiting these sites, Secretary Pritzker is interested in learning how to build on their successes.
In Hartford, Secretary Pritzker will visit APS Technology, a firm that started in 1994 providing contract engineering services and has experienced tremendous growth to become a leading provider of products to the gas drilling industry around the world. APS has grown from 79 employees in 2008 to over 300 employees – 265 in the U.S., and exports now account for 85 percent of their business. In May 2013, APS earned the President’s “E” Award for exports, the highest recognition any U.S. entity may receive for making a significant contribution to the expansion of U.S. exports.
“The purpose of this listening tour is to hear directly from business leaders, entrepreneurs, and elected officials about their efforts to drive economic development and create good-paying, long-term jobs,” Secretary Pritzker said. “I believe it’s particularly important to connect with business and thought leaders early and often, both to hear their ideas on how government and the private sector can partner on strategic initiatives to grow business, and to promote the tremendous work the Department of Commerce does on behalf of U.S. companies. Whether it’s supporting manufacturers, investing in research and development, empowering exporters to reach new markets, bringing broadband to communities across the nation, or providing intellectual property protection, the Department of Commerce is pushing forward with efforts to protect, promote, anticipate, and inform what America needs to be competitive and innovative in the 21st century.” In both Albany and Hartford, she will hold roundtable discussions to hear from business leaders about the opportunities and challenges they are facing, and how the Department of Commerce can best serve as a partner to support business growth.
Source: U.S. Department of Commerce
