HOLLYWOOD, Fla. - A collaborative effort will be the best way for South Florida to further emerge as an epicenter for growth, Gov. Jeb Bush told a group of the region's business leaders Thursday.
The region could flourish, but only if leaders find ways to work together in solving problems in economic development, growth management, education and transportation, Bush said in his first speech after returning from a trade mission to Honduras.
"This region has everything," said Bush, who delivered the keynote address at the South Florida Economic Summit. "It has the most talented group of diverse people to be able to provide goods and services to not only this important market, but the rest of the world. Working together, we can accomplish a lot more."
The summit was billed as the first large-scale effort to improve the way Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties join forces on issues and ideas that could positively affect the economy of South Florida, the sixth-largest metropolitan area in the country.
'We are not independent'
Bush applauded the way the region's economic leaders supported two major initiatives - luring the new Scripps Research Institute to Palm Beach County and assisting Miami's bid to become the permanent home for the Free Trade Area of the Americas. He urged them to continue doing so.
"In order to grow as an international business center in South Florida, we are not independent," said Calixto Garcia-Velez, chair of Miami-Dade County's Beacon Council. "We're here to work together. ... This meeting is a huge step forward."
Bush chaired the Beacon Council, the county's economic development arm, in the mid-1980s. He said he still laments not being able to promote more cooperation between the booming counties.
"We saw opportunities go away because we weren't speaking with one voice," Bush said. "In fact, we were doing what we normally do in a competitive free market. We were competing against one another; typically, all of us losing because we were doing so."
Officials hope the three counties can find additional drawing power by including the region's three airports, which service 54 million flyers each year, and its three ports in the same sales pitch.
"The future of our region depends on cooperation," said Larry Behar, chair of the Broward Alliance.
Bush, though, also urged the leaders to quickly develop strategies, especially in the growth management area. He said that the average South Florida driver spends 42 hours each year stuck in traffic and cautioned that businesses won't be apt to invest further in the area if their trucks will be sitting idly on clogged roadways.
"If you can't get containers out of Port Everglades or the port in Palm Beach County that serves the Bahamas and the Caribbean or the port in Miami because of internal regional traffic, then they'll go elsewhere," Bush said.
