Arizona Department of Commerce expecting arrival of the Trade Director for Europe… Mr. Nick Deane will be in Arizona the week of Feb. 5-9 and the Arizona Department of Commerce is making his services available. If your business would like to meet with him to learn how to promote your organization, or receive assistance as to how your company can conduct business in Europe, please contact Karla Castro Teixeira, International Trade Specialist for Europe & UK Liaison at (602) 771-1156 and let her know if you would like to schedule an appointment to meet with Mr. Deane and the Arizona Department of Commerce. Also, please be advised that Trade Director for the Americas Steve Sullivan will be in Arizona the week of Jan. 22-26. The Arizona Department of Commerce would like to make his services available for information on conducting and promoting business in the Americas. Contact Karla to schedule an appointment to meet with him, as well.

Forecasted wages for Tucson… According to Marshall Vest at the Eller School in the most recent issue of Arizona’s Economy, Tucson not only trails the state in average wages per person historically, but in the projected averages for the next five years as well. The 2005 estimated wage per employee for Tucson was $38,327, 3.8% less than the state average of $39,837 (Phoenix lead the state with $45,669, or 16.1% better than Tucson). By year 2011, the gap gets even wider. Tucson’s wage per employee for 2011 is projected to be $48,316 which will be 5.6% less than the state levels, and 17.1% less than Phoenix. It doesn’t appear that the economists who put this study together hold out much hope for our strategic plans to turn Tucson into a high-tech/high-wage city.

American Chamber from Guadalajara here in March… Claudia Grossi, Executive Director of the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham), has been working with the Business Development staff at the Tucson Chamber to set up a business trip during the first quarter of next year. Ms. Grossi plans to bring several of AmCham’s members who are involved with the burgeoning electronics industry in Guadalajara to meet with potential suppliers and/or buyers here in Tucson. The staff has recommended the first week of March for the visit and, once the dates have firmed up, will begin searching for appropriate businesses matches.

ACCRA… The Council for Community and Economic Research’s (C2ER) – formerly known as ACCRA – Workforce Strategy Center (WSC) has released its latest publication to facilitate career-sustaining employment. The publication, “The Career Pathways How-To Guide,” is the second in a series of reports on career pathways, an increasingly popular innovative approach to connecting education, training and support services that enables individuals to secure career-sustaining employment within a specific industry or occupation. The goal is to help individuals to advance over time to successively higher levels of education and employment in their preferred industry or occupational sector. The key features of career pathways include targeting jobs in industries of importance to local economies, creating pre-determined avenues of employment advancement for current workers, jobseekers and future labor market entrants, as well as working at ways to increase the supply of qualified workers for local employers in the target industries. This report is a practitioner’s guide to implementing career pathways on the local level and emphasizes how state-level officials can support these efforts. To view the entire report, go to www.workforcestrategy.org/publications/WSC_howto_10.16.06.pdf.

U.S. Chamber leading effort to halt counterfeiting and piracy… Counterfeiting and piracy hurt our economy, endanger public safety, and cost both business owners and consumers dearly. U.S. companies lose an estimated $250 billion per year due to counterfeiting and piracy and 750,000 American jobs are affected. One of the ways the U.S. Chamber is actively fighting this threat is the passage of the Stop Counterfeiting in Manufacturing Goods Act, which the President signed into law in March 2006. This legislation closes loopholes that allowed counterfeiters to avoid prosecution in spite of having clearly profited from illegal activities. For additional information contact Caroline Joiner at (202) 463-5375 or email her at ejoiner@uschamber.com.

Tucson-Hermosillo sub-committee meeting held Dec. 20… This recent meeting included a brief overview of EXPO Industrial/Construcción by Rudy Chabolla, the representative for the Trade Show and EXPO. The Tucson Chamber is working in conjunction with our Global Advantage Partners and the University of Arizona, the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the U.S. Export Assistance Center, the Puerto Nuevo Office, Arizona Tourism Office, TREO and many additional organizations to flesh out the specifics of this EXPO. The EXPO will take place March 21-23 in Hermosillo, Mexico. For additional information, contact Rudy Chabolla at 1-800-443-5777 or email him at rudychabolla@yahoo.com.