IE Business Daily Business news for the Inland Empire.
More than 400 business and civic leaders from throughout California got a daunting picture of the states’s economy Friday during the final day of the California Economic Summit, which was held in Ontario.
The two-day event, which was held at the DoubleTree Hotel near Ontario International Airport, held several panel discussions in which some difficult goals were laid out for the next 10 years: how to employ one million skilled workers, how to find an extra one million acre-feet of water and and how to build an extra one million houses.
Lt. Gov.Gavin Newsom also gave a rousing keynote address in which he encouraged his audience to embrace the state’s diversity and work to make certain that everyone benefits from the state’s prosperity, not just those already at the top of the economic ladder.
“We live in the most diverse democracy in the world,” said Newsom, whose remarks drew a standing ovation. “The rest of the world looks to us to see how we live. That’s why I’m optimistic about California’s future.”
This was the fourth annual summit and the first time it was held in the Inland Empire.
“It was a very strong event,” said Paul Granillo, president of the California Economic Partnership, which lobbied hard to bring the summit to the Inland Empire. “It shows we’re as important as any other region in the state.
