Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson addressed a crowd of over 80 Orion and Oxford business people and officials last Thursday at the Orion Area Chamber of Commerce Luncheon, held at Paint Creek Country Club.
Patterson will be in New York next Monday, trying to sustain the county’s AAA Bond rating, and his presentation to the chamber centered around what he’ll be saying to Wall Street.
He spoke of the county’s emerging sectors program, which includes monthly reports on the growth of industries like health care and alternative energy, among the fastest growing industries nationwide.
He hopes that attracting such companies will help to offset some of the other job loses in the area.
‘Over time, that’s 15 to 20 years, this program will be responsible for diversifying the growth of Oakland County,? Patterson said.
He talked about the high-tech jobs as part of the county’s Automation Alley project. Patterson noted that the county was behind only Silicon Valley and Boston in attracting these types of jobs.
‘We have a legitimate claim,? he said, ‘that this region has high-tech jobs.?
He said the county is still high on the Wireless Oakland project in spite of the fact that the economy and ‘skittish? investors have forced a delay.
‘We’re getting hammered by things that are out of our control,? Patterson said.
The economy, in general, was the topic of one of the questions asked after Patterson’s prepared remarks.
‘I assume we’re going to suffer in 2008 and we’ll see an up-tick in ?09,? Patterson said.
A county economic forecast will be presented in April.
On the subject of education, Patterson said he is still pushing Chinese language classes in Oakland’s 28 school districts. He added that this concept has been attracting some interest from overseas businesses, too.
‘That gives us a head start,? he said. ‘Because forecasters are saying that China will become the top economy in the world in a few years.?