Outreach to Asia a top WEDC priority, Hall says

WEDC CEO Reed Hall said one of the agency’s top priorities is reaching overseas, especially to Asia.

Hall, who spoke Tuesday to members of the Milwaukee Rotary Club, told the business professionals that by 2050, 54 percent of the world’s population will reside in Asia.

“The new reality is, over 95 percent of the world’s population lives outside the United States,” he said. “If you’re involved in manufacturing and you’re looking at 2050, which isn’t that far away, you really have to look at a global economy, I think, to maintain your business.”

But Hall stressed afterward that his agency’s focus is on manufacturing and agricultural exports, not jobs.

“Certainly, (outsourcing) is a last resort for some companies,” he said. “Tax credits are earned here in Wisconsin by making the capital investments and by hiring staff or training staff. It’s unfortunate that some companies choose to do (outsourcing), but I don’t know the facts in those companies, so maybe that’s the only way they can survive.”

In his presentation, Hall touted companies that are building in Wisconsin, including Amazon, Uline and Niagara Bottling.

“The Amazon project is a great example” of the WEDC’s success, said Hall. “Bottom line, $200 million invested in Wisconsin,” he said, citing the building of a distribution center in Pleasant Prairie as well as “over 1,100 jobs in the first part, quite a few more in the second part.”

“We gave credits; Kenosha County gave credits and construction began in November 2013,” Hall said. “We were competing with 12 states — that’s the global market we’re in. Every other state’s offering some great incentives. Wisconsin had more to offer here, and we’re very pleased they came here.”

An audience member objected to Hall’s inclusion of sales tax as part of Amazon’s investment in the state, “How can you justify that when that pot of money is coming out of the pocket of Wisconsin citizens?” the man asked.

Hall responded that Wisconsin citizens have been fortunate not to have paid sales tax on products they’ve ordered through Amazon up to now.

“I used it as an example of obviously a dividend,” he said. “The state would have had to sue Amazon to have them convinced that they had to pay the sales tax here. Instead of a litigation, this is a much better solution.”

Hall said little about the issues WEDC has faced since its 2011 conversion from the Department of Commerce.

“We acknowledge that we made some missteps from the conversion of (the Department of) Commerce to the creation of the new organization of the WEDC,” he told Rotarians. “When I came in, we did an internal inventory of what assets we had and what issues we have.”

He did promise the audience the agency will have greater transparency in the future.

Asked afterward to elaborate, Hall said that from now on, the largest business loans made by the WEDC will be discussed by a committee comprised of volunteers from the banking community.

“I think having public members involved helps us with our board, that they know we do share this information, and the years of experience of the bankers help us make informed decisions,” he said.

— By Kay Nolan
For WisBusiness.com