Gov. Gregoire�s statement on meetings with BMW & SGL Automotive executives

For Immediate Release: November 2, 2010

OLYMPIA � Gov. Chris Gregoire today issued the following statement on her upcoming meetings with executives at BMW Welt (World) and SGL Automotive in Germany. Gregoire will be leaving for a three-day trip to Germany on Wednesday:

�I have said many times � the way out of our current economic recession is to create new, living-wage jobs. That�s why when I was invited to speak at the ground breaking of BMW�s new manufacturing facility in Germany � which will eventually use carbon fiber produced in Moses Lake � I didn�t hesitate. It�s not often face-to-face meetings with company executives present themselves � and when they do, our state needs to take advantage of those opportunities to ensure foreign investment and job growth.

�In July, I joined executives from BMW and SGL Automotive to help break ground on their new facility in Moses Lake. Construction of the manufacturing plant is expected to create 200 jobs, and once up and running, the facility will employ 80 people. These are good-paying jobs for a part of the state that desperately needs them. This is a huge success story for Washington state, as the joint venture looked at cities across the world to locate its manufacturing plant. Our hard work and determination, as well as the many advantages of doing business in Washington state, drew the project to our area.

�Just because we won this fight doesn�t mean we can relax our effort to keep and attract companies to our state. Executives from the joint venture have expressed a strong interest in expanding over time, possibly tripling in size. I plan to use this visit to remind company leaders the advantages of doing business here, and pledge continued work with the company so that when the time comes to grow and expand, they decide to do so in Washington state.

�At the ground breaking event, I will also have the opportunity to visit with Chancellor Angela Merkel. I look forward to discussing our shared economic challenges, and ways we can work together to spur economic development and job creation that would benefit both nations as we emerge from the global recession. Germany is one of our largest trading partners � and Chancellor Merkel and I both agree that expanding exports is an important strategy to assist in our economic recovery.�