Promoting Nova Scotia in Key High-Tech Region

Premier John Hamm today invited corporate leaders in greater Washington, D.C., to invest and create jobs in Nova Scotia.

At a luncheon marking the business alliance between the Greater Washington Initiative and the Greater Halifax Partnership, Premier Hamm encouraged the area's business community to put its skills and experience to work in the province.

"Many of you know what it takes to build a company, or to take a corporation to the next step in seizing new opportunities," said Premier Hamm, who is visiting Washington with a team of business leaders from Nova Scotia's information technology, biotechnology, energy and telecommunications sectors.

"Right now, Nova Scotians are interested in joining with people of vision who know the potential of getting in on the ground floor of developing a petro-chemical industry in our province."

The greater Washington area is home to more than 12,000 high-tech companies --a higher number than in either Atlanta, Boston, New York or California's Silicon Valley.

Premier Hamm highlighted the upcoming landing in Halifax of Worldwide Fiber's trans-Atlantic fibre optic cable. It will have four times the capacity of all other trans-Atlantic cables that have been in use during the past century.

"As a result, Nova Scotia will be placed at the centre of an expanding global telecommunications market," he said. "This is crucial infrastructure for our new economy."

Premier Hamm concluded his address by extending an invitation to attend the upcoming Softworld 2000 IT Conference, which will attract buyers and sellers from around the globe to Halifax this coming October.