Speaker 1: Global business news twenty four hours a day. If Bloomberg
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Speaker 1: This is a Bloomberg Business Flash. Sharron, Bloomberg World Headquarters.
Speaker 1: I'm Charlie. Tell it a little change for US stocks
Speaker 1: holding close to records. The SMP five hundred index now unchanged,
Speaker 1: eight town industrials down six little change there at eighteen
Speaker 1: thousand five D twenty three. Nastack is up twelve points
Speaker 1: to fifty two twenty six. The record for Nastack fifty
Speaker 1: two twenty eight. So we're looking at a game right
Speaker 1: now of two tens up one percent, the tenure of
Speaker 1: fourteen thirty seconds, the yield one point five four percent,
Speaker 1: Gold up five seventy the ounce the thirteen forty two,
Speaker 1: a gain of four tents up one percent, and crude
Speaker 1: oil down seven tens of one percent, falling twenty nine
Speaker 1: cents of barrel forty two seventy two right now on
Speaker 1: West Texas Intermediate Crude. I'm Charlie Palotan. That's of Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Business Flash. This is taking stock with Pim Box and
Speaker 1: Kathleen Hayes on Bloomberg Radio. When you think of Louisiana,
Speaker 1: perhaps you think about Martin Gras and New Orleans, or
Speaker 1: perhaps the oil and gas industry, or indeed even culinary
Speaker 1: delights or a painting by Edward Dega about the Cotton Exchange.
Speaker 1: But here to tell us more about Louisiana and its
Speaker 1: economy is Don Pearson. He is the Secretary of Louisiana
Speaker 1: Economic Development. They're based in the state's capital of Baton Rouge.
Speaker 1: Don Pearson, thank you very much for being here. You're welcome,
Speaker 1: pinned great to be here at Bloomberg Studios. What is
Speaker 1: the state of Louisiana to you? Well, we're a diverse state,
Speaker 1: one that is rapidly developing into a global energy hub,
Speaker 1: and we've had a lot of success in oil and gas. Uh.
Speaker 1: Certainly we're known for that commodity prices. It sounds like
Speaker 1: there's an upward tick. They're glad to hear that as well.
Speaker 1: But to day, there's an actual industrial revolution going on
Speaker 1: around the chemical industry, and we have twenty five billion
Speaker 1: dollars of announced projects in our state, with approximately sixty
Speaker 1: five billion of that under engineering and permitting and and
Speaker 1: perhaps the early stages of construction. So this low oil
Speaker 1: price is a low feedstock price and a low energy
Speaker 1: price to these major chemical corporations, and they're taking advantage
Speaker 1: of that spot in the market in a state that's
Speaker 1: rich with ports, pipelines, rail infrastructure, and the ability through
Speaker 1: these ports to reach global markets. Well, the oil price
Speaker 1: right now, sorry, not going your way. It's down about
Speaker 1: half a percent right now, down about twenty four cents
Speaker 1: on the n imax seventy eight cents for a barrel
Speaker 1: of crude. Give us some examples of the company, for example, IBM,
Speaker 1: perhaps and some of the initiatives that you have helped
Speaker 1: put together that have encouraged IBM to come to Louisiana. Well,
Speaker 1: thanks for bringing that up. We are strong in our
Speaker 1: traditional oil and gas industry, agriculture, forestry, those types of programs,
Speaker 1: but what we want to do is also position the
Speaker 1: state in aerospace and aviation and I T and some
Speaker 1: water management issues are also some things we have an
Speaker 1: interest in. But through a great incentive program and through
Speaker 1: a great workforce training program, we've had outstanding success with
Speaker 1: companies like IBM, C s R, A, c g I,
Speaker 1: and GE Capital where we're managing to bring the university
Speaker 1: system and UH these programming and software solution companies together
Speaker 1: and UH, with a very focused effort on workforce development,
Speaker 1: provide to them the kinds of folks that they need
Speaker 1: to be successful. And so we're experiencing great growth there.
Speaker 1: What if let's say someone was the chief executive of
Speaker 1: a technology company, or indeed even an oil and gas
Speaker 1: company or some services business, and they were interested perhaps
Speaker 1: in expanding. What would they learn from calling Don Pearson
Speaker 1: at the Louisiana Economic Development Well, they learned that we
Speaker 1: can provide to them a complete concier service to evaluate
Speaker 1: market opportunities. Once we know listen and understand what their
Speaker 1: goals are and what the specific nature of their company is,
Speaker 1: we can message out to all sixty four of our
Speaker 1: parishes you would call them counties and identify available sites.
Speaker 1: We can demonstrate low energy costs, we can look into
Speaker 1: all the logistics that are important into UH building this
Speaker 1: kind of decision matrix and then make sure they're very
Speaker 1: aware of our low tax environment and our ability to
Speaker 1: deliver a world class workforce. We just got our seventh
Speaker 1: Super Bowl trophy last week, UH, the award for the
Speaker 1: number one workforce training program in America. We're quite proud
Speaker 1: of it. Tell us how it works well. It's a
Speaker 1: comprehensive solution. And that again, we'll listen to the needs
Speaker 1: of the company. UH. That then we'll recruit, will screen
Speaker 1: the people that we've recruited, looking for the right attributes,
Speaker 1: the right attitudes, h a fit with the company's culture.
Speaker 1: Will then give the company an opportunity to identify inside
Speaker 1: that universe of people the folks that look right to
Speaker 1: them to go forward with training. Will conduct pre employment training,
Speaker 1: and we'll do that in a manner that's copyrighted to
Speaker 1: the company, so all of their materials has kept confidential,
Speaker 1: all the things that are proprietary and important to their process. UM.
Speaker 1: On day one, we'll deliver that work force, and then
Speaker 1: we will stay with the company over time, not to
Speaker 1: just give you the people you need on day one,
Speaker 1: but to have a steady pipeline of the skill sets,
Speaker 1: the certificates, or the degrees that are are necessary to
Speaker 1: be a successful employee in the company. Talk about success, Uh,
Speaker 1: success with a seamless steel tube mill in Shreveport plus
Speaker 1: an eleven billion dollar ethane cracker complex in in Lake Charles.
Speaker 1: How did those come about? Um? Certainly we were in
Speaker 1: a global competition and a stiff US competition for the
Speaker 1: Bentler steel plant that's located at the port in uh
Speaker 1: Catto Parish in the environment of street Port, Louisiana. UM.
Speaker 1: One of the interesting things around that was to convince
Speaker 1: a German company that we could deliver the workforce. You
Speaker 1: have to appreciate that in Germany, uh the young people
Speaker 1: start an apprentice program, probably in junior high school. So
Speaker 1: when you look across to America and say, well, how
Speaker 1: are you going to provide a workforce without those kinds
Speaker 1: of programs, it really had them raising their eyebrows. We
Speaker 1: were able to package a comprehensive solution with the construction
Speaker 1: of a twenty million dollar training center on a community
Speaker 1: college campus, dedicated to them for the short term and
Speaker 1: to our industry in the long term. Thank you very
Speaker 1: much for joining us and sharing this information. Don Pearson
Speaker 1: is the Secretary of Louisiana Economic Development Program l E
Speaker 1: ed Fast Start much appreciate it. He's based in the
Speaker 1: state's capital of Baton Rouge. This is taking stock. I'm
Speaker 1: pim Fox and this is Bloomberg coming up. Get ready
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Speaker 1: chief executive of Iridium Communications and find out about a
Speaker 1: new venture with SpaceX that's next