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Blog Category: Guest blog

Building Opportunities for Latino Businesses

Submitted on May 19, 2011 - 2:45pm
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Anna Gomez Addresses the Latin Tech-Net Initiative

Guest blog post by Anna Gomez, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration.

On Tuesday, I joined a group of Hispanic community development leaders in San Francisco to launch the Latino Tech-Net Initiative, a Recovery Act project spearheaded by the Mission Economic Development Agency, or MEDA, which is equipping 17 computer centers in 11 cities across the country with equipment, software, and training to help Latino entrepreneurs and small businesses build online skills, spur local economic development, and support job creation in their communities.

The “digital divide” remains a serious issue for the Latino community, and MEDA is on the front lines of addressing this problem. Data from NTIA’s Digital Nation report show that the broadband adoption rate among Hispanic households is only 56.9 percent - more than ten percent lower than the overall national rate. In fact, even after adjusting for socioeconomic characteristics like income and education, Latino households significantly lag White households in broadband adoption.

Through Recovery Act projects like Latino Tech-Net, we are working to bridge the technology gap among economically vulnerable populations such as minorities, low-income communities, people with disabilities and seniors. We know there is no simple ‘one size fits all’ solution to closing the digital divide and that a combination of targeted approaches makes sense.

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Varian Medical Systems Could Save More Lives and Compete More Efficiently Under U.S.-Korea Trade Agreement

Submitted on April 29, 2011 - 7:30am
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Secretary Locke, Reps. McDermott and Reichert Listen to an Explanation of How the Varian Linear Accelerator Works

Guest blog post by Timothy E. Guertin, President and CEO of Varian Medical Systems of Palo Alto, CA.

Editor’s Note:  Varian Medical Systems focuses energy on saving lives. By partnering with customers and others, the people of Varian develop leading solutions for improving cancer treatment, X-ray imaging, and security.

Varian Medical Systems is honored that Secretary Locke and an esteemed Congressional delegation devoted time to seeing our systems treating cancer patients at Seoul National University Hospital (SNUH), while on a trade mission to the Republic of Korea.  SNUH, a longtime partner of Varian, provides some of the most leading edge cancer treatments available to those stricken with this terrible disease.  The Varian linear accelerators that perform radiotherapy treatments at SNUH were manufactured in California and then installed and serviced by a team of technicians in Seoul, providing jobs on both sides of the Pacific.

While visiting the radiation oncology department at SNUH, Secretary Locke was able to see firsthand the easy and painless process a cancer patient goes through when being treated with radiotherapy.  Radiotherapy is a non-invasive technique that targets tumors with high-energy photon beams that stop cancer cells from reproducing.   Treatments on Varian linear accelerators are tailored for each patient, focusing on breast, prostate, brain, lung and other types of cancers.    In the next several months, SNUH will be acquiring the new Varian TrueBeam system that will enable clinicians in Seoul to treat more complex cases, while at the same time reducing treatment times for patients.

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AMCHAM Korea Welcomes Secretary Locke to Seoul

Submitted on April 28, 2011 - 8:00am
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Amy Jackson, President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea, Hosts Secretary Locke During a Luncheon in Seoul, Korea.

Guest blog post by Amy Jackson, President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea.

The American Chamber of Commerce in Korea (AMCHAM Korea) was very pleased to welcome Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke and his delegation of four distinguished Members of Congress to Korea this week.  Their visit symbolizes the strong ties that underline the U.S.-Korea bilateral relationship – and also the expectation that the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA) will soon be taken up by the legislatures in both countries for a vote.

AMCHAM Korea is the oldest and largest foreign business association in Korea.  We are a fully private organization, and we have around 2,000 individual members coming from about 1,000 companies that span all sectors of the economy – aerospace, automotive, agriculture, consumer products, financial services, healthcare, education, professional services, and many more.   Our member companies are big and small and employee hundreds of thousands of U.S. workers throughout the United States. 

Our key message to Secretary Locke and his delegation was that early ratification of the KORUS FTA is essential for the continued success of U.S. companies in the $1 trillion dollar Korean economy.  Our members emphasized that they compete head-to-head with European companies here, and once the Korea-EU FTA goes into effect on July 1, European companies will have a significant cost advantage over their U.S. competitors.  In addition, companies in the Congressional districts of the Members who accompanied the Secretary noted that they are already looking at changes in their supply chains as a result of the Korea-EU and KORUS FTAs.  If KORUS goes into effect soon, this could mean significant increase in sourcing from U.S. suppliers.

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Secretary Locke Kicks Off CODEL to Korea

Submitted on April 26, 2011 - 11:00am
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Guest blog post by Secretary of Commerce, Gary Locke.

This week, I’m visiting the Republic of Korea, one of the United States’ closest allies in the world, and one of our most important trading partners.  Last December, President Obama signed a landmark trade deal with Korea that could boost annual exports of American goods to Korea by up to $11 billion, supporting at least 70,000 U.S. jobs.

But the deal still needs to pass Congress, which is why this week, I’m leading four Members of Congress on a fact-finding mission that will demonstrate firsthand how this trade deal will lead directly to more sales of American goods and services abroad and more American jobs here at home.

Korean and U.S. businesses are already collaborating, innovating and trading together like never before.  This week, members of our bipartisan delegation – which includes Representatives Dave Reichert and Jim McDermott from my home state of Washington and Representatives Joseph Crowley and Charles Rangel from New York – are getting to see this up close.

Tomorrow, we visit Pantech, one of Korea’s largest mobile phone makers, and a major buyer of U.S. technology. 

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Intuit Shows Secretary Locke Behind-the-Scenes Impact of GoConnect

Submitted on February 7, 2011 - 4:00pm
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Locke, Alex Lintner and store owner, Deepak Gupta

Guest blog post by Alex Lintner, president and CEO of Intuit's Global Business Division

Ed. note: Intuit has focused on a simple mission: to improve the financial lives of people so profoundly that they could never imagine going back to the old way of doing things. By solving big underserved problems, we have become woven into the financial lives of more than 50 million small businesses and consumers worldwide. Readers from the United States are most likely familiar with flagship brands: QuickBooks, Quicken and TurboTax.

Intuit is proud to join U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke on the business development trade mission to India. It is an honor to represent my company as we contribute to trade that creates jobs for people in both the United States and India.

On day one of the mission, I had the privilege of seeing our impact firsthand. Secretary Locke joined us at a neighborhood grocery store in South Delhi that was founded by an Indian national who “exported” his knowlege and experience from running a store in Utah back to India to build a successful business here in the Indian capital.  Store manager Deepak Gupta provided a tour of the shop, shared his goals for the business and shed light on how the store has been marketing to the community. The purpose of the trip was to provide Secretary Locke with a “behind-the-scenes” look at what went into developing Intuit’s GoConnect, the new mobile marketing service we created to give small businesses the power to increase visits from existing customers via personalized, targeted mobile marketing campaigns that can be managed via the Web or mobile phones. Using GoConnect, the store has seen a sales increase of seven percent and a concurrent decrease in marketing costs of 90 percent. 

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