[ OUR OPINION ]
Job summit crucial
to labor and businessANTICIPATING dramatic economic growth in the state through the next decade, local business groups are shrewdly taking the reins in organizing a "job summit" to work out strategies that will help island companies and the local work force take full advantage of the gains.
THE ISSUE
Business groups have put together a plan to reap the most from a predicted economic boom.The approach promises to be productive in gleaning information about the projected demands of the labor market, how much Hawaii can supply and how it can prepare and increase the work force to meet those demands. Formidable as it seems, the effort must be made if businesses and Hawaii's people want a bigger piece of the financial pie.
Predictions of a boom are based on the wealth of military construction projects recently announced. Among them are the Army's privatization plan to build, renovate and manage 7,700 housing units at Schofield Barracks, worth more than $1.7 billion in the first 10 years of a 50-year contract. The Air Force last month awarded a contract for 1,356 units at Hickam Air Force Base with $300 million pegged for initial development, but that may reach gross spending of as much as $1.1 billion through 2050.
Meanwhile, the recent boom in the real estate market is prompting the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism to estimate a 4.7 percent growth in construction this year. In addition, the cruise ship industry will add about 3,700 jobs here as it ramps up operations in Hawaii.
In a meeting with the Star-Bulletin's editorial board, U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie said speculation about whether Hawaii could handle the new demands for workers with the necessary skills pushed him to seek help from the business community. The congressman said he did not want Hawaii's economic bounty to become "a cash cow for people on the outside coming in and cherry- picking the jobs."
In an oblique swat at the Lingle administration, Abercrombie said he had hoped that state political leaders would assist in connecting major mainland contractors to island businesses and workers, and define and steer educational and training programs to meet labor demands, but "all I hear about is local school boards, local school boards."
In that vacuum, he asked business people like Bruce Coppa, director of Pacific Resource Partnership, and Bennette Evangelista, a senior vice president at Central Pacific Bank, and the Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii and the Hawaii Institute for Public Affairs to step up to the plate.
The result is the Jan. 20 summit, where these groups and about 150 others representing the building, cruise ship, hotel, tourism and agriculture industries, small businesses, Hawaiian and job development enterprises, the University of Hawaii and labor unions will analyze job demands and the best practices and strategies to meet them. The summit won't turn out think tank, drawn-out studies, but rather a quick-moving plan to get people and businesses working.
As it happened, it may be fortuitous that the business community is taking on this challenge. Hawaii has a tendency to rely on state government for answers to its economic problems. All too often, solutions are slow to come, hampered by political posturing and spinning. But Hawaii's businesses and workers can't wait. If predictions hold true, the state's economy soon will be "in for a hell of a ride," said PRP's Coppa. Everyone who wants to has to get on the train now.
