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Trade mission gets mixed reviews
by Laura McCallum, Minnesota Public Radio
October 1, 2003

Gov. Pawlenty tours Biotechnology Research Institute in Montreal. (MPR Photo/Laura McCallum)

Gov. Pawlenty wrapped up his first trade mission by calling for greater cooperation between Minnesota and Montreal. The governor returned from the two-day trip on Tuesday, saying there are opportunities for business and research partnerships between the two regions in the area of biotechnology.

Montreal, Quebec — Gov. Pawlenty's first trade mission was a whirlwind tour of Montreal's biotech industry. He didn't do any traditional sightseeing. Instead, he visited Canada's largest biotechnology research facility, Montreal's biotech incubator, and one of the city's four major universities. He also promoted Minnesota to venture capitalists and business leaders. Pawlenty says he thought his first trade trip went well.

"I found some very helpful information and insights about the public policies that they're using here to stimulate the biosciences, biotechnology job growth, and while we may not want to mimic all of that exactly, there are elements of it I think we can and should bring back to Minnesota," he said.

The governor says he may propose tax incentives for research and development, and for investment in biotech.

The lone legislator who went on the trip, Rep. Lynn Osterman, R-New Hope, says lawmakers may be leery of state investment in the industry, because of the state's budget crunch. She plans to organize an educational program for other lawmakers on what she believes is the importance of biotechnology for Minnesota.

"Because I really think that the knowledge base is lacking at this point," she says. "And that's nobody's fault, there are so many topics that we need to study throughout a legislative session, that I think this one really deserves some extra attention, maybe even before the bonding session begins, so that they really have a better grasp what kind of a priority this has to be for our state."

Osterman says she expects to see legislative proposals that use money from bond sales to pay for the state's biotech initiatives.

No deals were announced during the two-day trip. Some members of the Minnesota business delegation say they hope the trade mission will lead to increased exports in the next year. Others say the trip gave them access to government officials they wouldn't otherwise be able to meet.

Minneapolis international business lawyer Patrick Kelly says he often travels to Montreal, but he doesn't get to talk to the premier of Quebec and his staff.

"If you come up here on business typically, you don't get that kind of access, you don't get the high-level access," Kelly said.

Kelly and one of his law partners, Richard Weiner, went on previous trade missions with Gov. Ventura. The two say the pace of the Pawlenty trip was much more hectic than the Ventura missions, and Weiner says it lacked the international media frenzy that Ventura attracted.

"Print media, TV, everybody following us around like a big caravan, so we felt like groupies following around a celebrity, and the media wanted to interview the groupies. It was incredible. And so that made sort of a sideshow, it was almost like a whole other mission that we got to watch. And that's not here," he said.

Four of the Minnesota business representatives spent the afternoon on Tuesday meeting with potential Canadian clients and partners. Some of those meetings, which were facilitated by the U.S. Commercial Service out of the U.S. Consulate in Montreal, didn't quite work out.

"It was completely off," said Giancarlo Canessa, a system engineer at SENCOR, a Bloomington medical information storage company. He was matched with a representative of a language translation company.

But, Canessa said, he hadn't expected to gain any clients or new distributors during the trip. And, he added, he's returning to Canada for a few months and will use the services of the U.S. commercial office to meet with potential partners then.

Right before Pawlenty left Montreal, he met with officials from Bombardier Aerospace Company. The Montreal-based company is considering Duluth for a new aircraft maintenance facility that could create several hundred new jobs. Pawlenty says Duluth is still in the running, but the company would prefer a location farther west.

"They also have some existing facilities that are not utilized in other states or under-utilized that they're thinking about converting, and they could do so at almost no cost to the company. So those are some challenges we're going to have to overcome, but I told them, you know, you identify the cost differential, we'll try to fill the gap through a variety of ways."

The governor is planning a second trade mission to Eastern Europe in November.

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