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Ex-candidate Forbes
to speak here

By Susan Kreifels
Star-Bulletin

The man whose magazine coined "The People's Republic of Hawaii" three years ago will get a look at island business opportunities for himself next month.

Steve Forbes, the magazine magnate who just pulled out of the presidential race, confirmed yesterday that he will speak at the Pacific Basin Economic Council's international general meeting here March 17-22.

"He'll get a firsthand opportunity to see things are improving and that the government got the message," said Robert Lees, the economic council's secretary general.

In a June 1997 Forbes magazine article titled "The People's Republic of Hawaii," author Seth Lubove blasted the state's bureaucracy and what he described as an anti-business mentality.

"Hawaii's woes are mainly self-created," Lubove wrote. "A union-backed Democratic majority in the state Legislature took advantage of a cyclical boom in the late '80s to load new taxes and costly mandates onto local business. The taxing and regulating has been a job-killer."

Although Forbes has not determined the topic of his speech, Lees hopes it will touch on privatization, the role of government and how the nation state "may be outliving its usefulness" in this age of globalization and Internet commerce.

Organizers believe the March meeting will give the state an opportunity to change its image of sun and surf to a place for serious business as well.

Heads of the region's major corporations as well as ranking national and international government officials will attend the meeting. President Clinton, who has attended two such forums in the past, has not confirmed that he will make it, but U.S. trade representative Charlene Barshefsky will be here, Lees said.

Lees will speak at a legislative joint-session and encourage lawmakers to make pro-business changes before the corporate heads hit town. That would help shape Hawaii's reputation as a business-friendly place, he said.