HON. CARLOS L. VALDES VISION for the 21st Century
In December 1990, when giving the keynote address at a naturalization ceremony, Representative Carlos L. Valdes, who had himself participated in a similar ceremony just 17 years before, challenged the new citizens assembled before him to “adhere to the principles that made our country great.” “We are a nation of many nationalities, many races, and many religions,” he said, “[but] a nation bound together by a single unity, the unity of freedom and equality.”
Few places in this country today put the principles on which the nation was founded to a more rigorous test than Representative Valdes’ home, Miami-Dade County, where more than 50 percent of the population is a first-generation American. And few of those first-generation Americans have worked harder to create a fertile soil for those principles than Representative Valdes, who served six consecutive two-year term in Florida’s Legislature. As his actions illustrate, Representative Valdes believes freedom and equality grow best where citizens feel safe, can educate their children, and enjoy opportunities to build a sound economic future for their families.
Representative Valdes’ career demonstrates his commitment to these principles, encompassing an array of political, professional and civic activities characterized by an unflagging determination to improve the quality of life of his local constituency and promote Florida’s economic well-being. His landmark accomplishment in repealing Florida’s sentencing guidelines and replacing them with the Florida Criminal Punishment Code as well as his continuing efforts to ensure public safety elicited warm praise from the State Attorney’s Office, Florida Police Chiefs Association and the Florida Sheriffs Association. Recognized as Legislator of the Year regularly throughout his legislative career by diverse community groups, Representative Valdes, as Chairman of the Economic Development Council and former Chairman of the Business Development and International Trade Committee in the House of Representatives, is currently spearheading efforts to expand Florida’s role in hemispheric trade through dynamic public/private partnerships.
One of his primary goals is to ensure that Florida–with its burgeoning population of new residents from all parts of the country as well as immigrants from all over the world — has a business climate conducive to the growth of new and existing industries. How is Representative Valdes working to achieve those goals? Through a strategic program designed to provide companies with the resources and assistance
they need to grow and prosper in the challenging, rapidly changing business environment of our times.
This program has several components. First, to make sure that Florida remains an attractive and competitive location for businesses to flourish, Representative Valdes is joining with state and local leaders to learn what stimulates companies to locate in Florida, what makes them choose to stay in the state or, conversely, to leave, and what makes them expand their operations. Many business leaders think of Florida as a place for fun and sun, which of course it still is; but their perspective must be broadened so that they also see Florida as the place where the world’s business is done.
Also, recognizing the importance to Florida’s economy of international trade — which surpassed the $64 billion mark in 1997 and generates over 600,000 jobs for Floridians – Representative Valdes has been advocating the creation of public/private partnerships between local communities, the private sector, and nonprofit organizations to develop a common vision of the state’s future in the global economy. Such partnerships will help ensure that Florida not only maintains its competitive edge with its neighbors in Latin America and the Caribbean, but also develops new opportunities in emerging markets the world over. The eventual resumption of trade with Cuba will also create a huge potential market for Florida. When Cuba with its 12 million people, just 90 miles to the south of Florida, reopens to trade with the United States, the state expects to play a central role in its economic redevelopment. Businesses everywhere in the state will benefit from this effort, which will create a myriad of opportunities for those ready to capitalize on them. As the chief economist of the World Bank told a group of Latin American leaders gathered in Miami, “The fastest growing economic region of the world lies to the south.” His comments were echoed by a representative of the Federal Aviation Administration, who stated, “More flights are traveling from North to South America than are crossing the Pacific and, by 2000, it is expected that more flights will be heading south than will be crossing the Atlantic.” This is the opportunity impelling Representative Valdes to action.
While trade development may be key to Florida’s economic future and to the future of the state’s business community, companies wishing to penetrate international markets companies must have the tools they need to take advantage of Florida’s strategic geographic location, particularly its proximity to the growing markets to the south. They need help in uncovering trade leads and finding foreign buyers; they need help in export financing; they need help in understanding foreign business practices and regulations; and they need help in developing and using 21st century technology.
Representative Valdes has also worked to have the Legislature allocate the financial support Florida needs to develop the “hard” infrastructure — the seaports and airports, the road and rail connections — essential to trade, both international and domestic. During his tenure as Chairman of the Business Development and International Trade Committee in the House, he favored funding to improve the inter- modal transportation system required in a state like Florida, whose geography makes such a system indispensable to competitive commerce. As Representative Valdes reminds his colleagues and his constituents, “Recent developments off-shore, such as the creation of new transshipment hubs in the Bahamas, in Panama, and in Jamaica should concern us. Will we be able to keep the markets we have today? Will we be able to compete in new emerging markets? We will only if we invest in information, in infrastructure, and, perhaps the most critical of all — in the individuals who will fill the wide array of trade-related jobs, the people who will maintain the harbors, build the terminals and warehouses, keep the records, load and unload the cargo, operate and repair the equipment, drive the trucks, and work the rails.”
In a sustained effort that demonstrates Representative Valdes’ commitment to the principles of freedom and equality, as achieved through education and economic opportunity, he has been promoting programs to develop the skilled workforce without which no business development policy can be effective. Programs that match jobs to skills, that provide apprenticeships, that inform high school students about
the types of well-paying jobs available to them in different industries — these are among are among Representative Valdes’ pet projects.
These are the projects that will allow Florida’s diverse population — whether native born, naturalized, or newly arrived in the United Stated — to participate in the state’s economic future, and keep alive the principles of freedom and equality that have bound this nation together and guided Representative Valdes’ career. Representative Valdes has built that career on his wholehearted belief in the unlimited opportunity and spirit of free enterprise that have made the United States such a strong country. “We must create a business environment in which businesses can grow and create jobs,” he says, “rather than an environment where “big government” comes in and says it is going to create jobs. Businesses create jobs, not the government!”