Hawai’i can rebound from the Sept. 11 attack and years of inefficient government leadership by building a business relationship with China and creating an army of skilled workers for the state’s high-tech industry, a Democratic candidate for governor said Wednesday
Hawai’i can rebound from the Sept. 11 attack and years of inefficient government leadership by building a business relationship with China and creating an army of skilled workers for the state’s high-tech industry, a Democratic candidate for governor said Wednesday on Kaua’i.
D.G. “Andy” Anderson, who spoke at a meeting of the Rotary Club of Kapa’a at Kaua’i Coconut Beach Resort, said Hawai’i would get a shot in the arm economically by staging a China products fair in Hawai’i each year.
And if that isn’t possible, Hawai’i can co-sponsor a trade fair in the Far East, he said.
“I want to bring a mini-Canton trade fair to Hawai’i, to sell their wares to (businessmen from the U.S.) mainland and Europe,” Anderson said.
A much larger trade fair in China last year that drew 100,000 people generated $23 billion in sales.
Even a smaller event in Hawai’i could result in huge benefits for the state, Anderson said.
Anderson, who announced his candidacy for governor last month, said he is the best man for the job. He cited his experience from more than 40 years in politics and business.
If elected, Anderson said, he would follow in the footsteps of former governor John Burns, who tried to establish Hawai’i as a “bridge between the East and the West.”
To further strengthen Hawai’i economically, Anderson proposed a high-tech labor zone on O’ahu. It would require congressional approval and would involve the temporary migration to Hawai’i of about 5,000 people who have the “required skills and education” to help the state’s high-tech industry grow, he said, adding “high-tech labor cards” would be given to qualified workers.
High-tech companies could build facilities on vacant land on the leeward side of O’ahu used by the University of Hawai’i, Anderson suggested.
“We would have a stock of major high-tech people,” with Hawai’i residents filling those jobs after appropriate training, he said.
While the state’s tourism industry took a dive after Sept. 11, Hawai’i still must support that industry because “it pays the bills,” Anderson said.
He said Governor Ben Cayetano’s trip to Japan to lure Japanese visitors back to Hawai’i “was a good thing,” but the results “will take time.”
Anderson said he backs efforts to “maintain jobs, restore them and to create new ones.”
Tourism jobs should continue to be created, but there also should be “different opportunities for our kids in college who want to come home and find opportunity in Hawai’i,” he said.
Legislators have acknowledged the weakness of relying solely on tourism but have failed to diversify the economy in a meaningful way, Anderson said.
In the past five years, the Legislature hasn’t taken any significant steps to support diversification of the economy, he said.
He also blamed government for excessive spending, including hundreds of millions of dollars, in some cases, to pay back the debt on bonds for public improvement projects. Such projects benefit the public, he said, but government should live within budget limits.
“Our government has obligated us to more money and more bills than we have in our state coffers to pay,” Anderson said. “The only way we can pay the bill is through tax increases.”
As a small-businessman, Anderson said said he can’t afford to pay more taxes.
“My restaurants are at the bottom. My business is at the bottom, and I don’t have any more to dig in my pockets to give to the state coffers,” said Anderson, who employs more than 180 people.
Hawai’i doesn’t need a politician, but instead a seasoned businessman like himself to help guide the revival of its economy, Anderson assserted.
Anderson, 71, said he isn’t too old to be governor and decided to run partly because he wasn’t impressed by the credentials of other candidates, including Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris, a Democrat.
Other declared candidates include state Rep. Ed Case, a Democrat, and Linda Lingle, the state Republican Party chairwoman.
Anderson said he’d bring back to government a sense of trust.
“Everybody in the state doesn’t trust each other any more,” Anderson said. “All levels of government – teachers, professors, you name it. We are always fighting with one another.”
Staff writer Lester Chang can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 225) and mailto:lchang@pulitzer.net
