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For Immediate Release: September 27, 2010
Contact: Cory Churches (202) 482-3809
Obama Administration Official Highlights Resources to Boost Competitiveness of U.S. Manufacturing
WASHINGTON – The Commerce Department’s Assistant Secretary for Manufacturing and Services, Nicole Y. Lamb-Hale, today was joined by Senator Robert P. Casey, Jr. and Ron Bloom, the administration’s senior counselor for manufacturing policy for a full day of discussions about new growth opportunities, workforce redevelopment, and access to capital for U.S. companies. They spoke at the first Manufacture America event to nearly 90 Pittsburgh area manufacturers about how businesses can refine and refocus their efforts to become more globally competitive.
The United States is the world’s largest manufacturing economy, employing nearly 12 million Americans in the production of $1.6 trillion in manufactured products—18 percent of the world’s manufactured goods.
“We are excited to be in Pittsburgh, home to many innovative and entrepreneurial manufacturers,” said Lamb-Hale. “We are committed to revitalizing the manufacturing sector across the U.S. and look forward to continuing the conversation started here today. Pittsburgh manufacturers are critical to putting America back to work and we are here to provide support in that effort.”
As part of its efforts to help American manufacturers thrive, the Commerce Department’s innovative Manufacture America program helps manufacturers rethink, retool and rebuild their operations through exploring new products, markets, processes and sources of finance. The Department’s International Trade Administration is collaborating with several federal agencies to connect local manufacturers to local, state, federal and private sector resources to help them to be competitive in a global marketplace. Other Manufacture America programs are scheduled in Illinois and South Carolina this year.
In 2009, manufacturing employment in Pittsburgh accounted for 15 percent of the state total, the highest among the metropolitan areas located fully in Pennsylvania.
A prominent message to the manufacturers was to consider expanding to markets abroad. Pennsylvania’s export shipments of merchandise in 2009 totaled $28.4 billion, the tenth largest export total among all states that year. Pennsylvania’s $6 billion increase in exports from 2005 to 2009 was the seventh largest in the U.S.
For more information about this and future Manufacture America events visit http://trade.gov/manufactureamerica.
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International Trade Administration
The International Trade Administration (ITA) is the premier resource for American companies competing in the global marketplace. ITA has 2,100 employees assisting U.S. exporters in more than 100 U.S. cities and 77 countries worldwide. For more information on ITA visit www.trade.gov.
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