|
Greetings,
Welcome back to In the Zone, the official bi-monthly newsletter of the Greater Maricopa Foreign Trade Zone #277 (GMFTZ). GMFTZ is proud to be one of the fastest growing FTZ’s in the nation.
The GMFTZ Operations Team and the Board of Directors are continuing to improve Zone processes and procedures for Operators and economic development professionals alike. We are finalizing a new professional services agreement with longtime partner, WESTMARC, and we are revamping the GMFTZ website. Look for the rollout of the new (and improved) GMFTZ website this Fall.
Thank you all for your continued commitment to enhancing economic opportunity in the West Valley.
Sincerely,
| |
|
Allison Grigg
President
GMFTZ Board of Directors
| |
|
As we head into the summer months, there is no slowing down West Valley workforce development activities and opportunities:
- In 2018, WESTMARC adopted a five-year workforce development strategic plan, the West Valley Pipeline. At the time, the critical issue was to work with industry and education partners to ensure the ongoing development of our workforce pipeline to attract more high quality, high paying career opportunities for regional residents. This plan also entailed marketing our skilled and educated workforce as a business attraction strategy.
Today, the market has grown tremendously as more high quality, high paying career opportunities have located in the region. Now, a key goal is to ensure that West Valley businesses have access to quality talent pipelines that will allow for profitability and expansion.
Addressing current and anticipating future business needs, WESTMARC is updating the goals and recommendations of West Valley Pipeline for the next five-year period, and we invite your input.
We will be holding a group discussion with Business and Industry on Tuesday, June 27, 9am – 10:30am at the WESTMARC office.
If you are interested and available in participating in the group discussion, please complete a short registration, and we will follow up with a calendar invitation: https://forms.gle/jSxnwDTXHdUYusxV6
-
WESTMARC continues with our series of Industry Employer Collaborative meetings on Thursday, June 22, 9am – 12Noon, this time focusing on Industrial industries (Manufacturing, Distribution, and Construction). The meeting will be held at the West-MEC Southwest Campus in Buckeye. This will be our last Industrial Industries Employer Collaborative meeting of the year as we turn our attention to other industries for the rest of 2023. If your business falls into Manufacturing, Distribution, or Construction, we invite you to participate. More information is available on our website.
| |
|
Employers: Help us understand your staffing challenges by completing our Employer Survey. Your individual responses are strictly confidential and will be analyzed only in aggregate with other survey responses. The results will help us design better solutions to meet your needs.
| |
EDUCATION & TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES | |
|
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported this week that the Arizona Unemployment rate fell to 3.4%, a rate not seen since at least the mid-1970s. With the competition for workers remaining tight, businesses that have the most success in attracting and retaining qualified talent are those that engage with students in grade school, middle school, and/or high school years. “Engagement” can mean different things and can last as little as 30 minutes or as long as a semester.
Our partner, the Center for the Future of Arizona Pathways to Prosperity program, created a helpful Employer Engagement grid to demonstrate the various ways businesses can connect with students as they prepare to one day enter the workforce.
If you have any questions, or would like to directly engage with a school or school district, please contact Kevin Dumcum, Director of Regional Workforce Development, at [email protected]
| |
NAFTZ Takeaways from USITC FTZ Investigation | |
|
This groundbreaking study on the competitiveness of U.S. Foreign Trade Zones (FTZs), is available for download in your personal member InfoHub (just click member log-in at www.naftz.org), as well as a summary of NAFTZ's takeaways from the study.
The investigation was initiated by the USTR on December 14, 2021. However, it is important to note that the groundwork for this request was laid by the NAFTZ, in collaboration with its public affairs advisors and key Congressional members. To gather comprehensive data and insights, a public hearing took place on May 17, 2022, and an industry survey was conducted during the summer of last year. Throughout 2022, field visits were undertaken by the USITC team to various FTZ locations. Finally, on May 15, 2023, the comprehensive final report was published, encompassing the findings of the study.
Please note: If you have not yet logged in to your NAFTZ membership account on our new website (since the last week of March), you will first need to establish new log-in credentials by clicking here: https://members.naftz.org/MIC/Create, and the system will guide you through the process.
To download the full 300+ page USITC report from your InfoHub, click here: https://nationalassociationofforeigntradezones.growthzoneapp.com/MIC/16349326/0/#/ResourceDetail/43168/USITCInvestigationFinalRe
To download NAFTZ's summary take-aways document from the InfoHub, click here: https://nationalassociationofforeigntradezones.growthzoneapp.com/MIC/16349326/0/#/ResourceDetail/43929/USITC2023FTZCompetitivene
To sign up for our free member webinar tomorrow on the results of this USITC investigation, click here: Webinar: USITC Study on FTZ Impact - National Association of Foreign Trade-Zones (naftz.org)
| |
NAFTZ FTZ Advocacy first Virtual Fly-Ins Date Change | |
If you were at our recent NAFTZ Spring Seminar in Tucson, Arizona, you heard us announce that we would be holding our first ever Advocacy Virtual Fly-Ins the week of June 19th. Due to limited staff capacity, we're changing the dates to July. We want to ensure that we have the resources and assistance members may need and we simply need more time to be fully prepared. Watch your NAFTZ emails for the July dates and further information. | |
Upcoming Related Webinars | |
KORE Power Receives Conditional Commitment for $850M for Advanced Battery Manufacturing at Buckeye Facility | | | | |
