Ontario to Host State Economic Summit

An estimated 400 business, civic and elected officials will meet in Ontario this week for the fourth annual California Economic Summit.

The event, scheduled to be held Thursday and Friday, is an opportunity for members of the public and private sector to discuss ways to create jobs and make California’s economy more competitive worldwide, said Ed Coghlan, summit spokesman.

This year’s session will focus primarily on three areas: workforce development, affordable housing and the drought, specifically the ongoing water shortage’s impact on the state’s economy, Coghlan said.

This will be the first time the Inland Empire will host the summit, which is sponsored by California Forward and the California Stewardship Network, both non-profit organizations. The first three were held in Santa Clara, Los Angeles and Sacramento.

Several local entities, most prominently the Inland Empire Economic Partnership, lobbied hard to bring this year’s summit to the two-county region, Coghlan said.

“The summit is all about regions and finding regional solutions to economic problems, and the Inland Empire is an important region,” Coghlan said. “It’s a major factor in the state’s economy, so it made sense that it should host.”

Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, Treasurer John Chiang, Secretary of State Alex Padilla, Controller Betty Yee, University of California
President Janet Napolitano and Californian State University Chancellor Timothy White are all scheduled to attend the summit.

The event will be held at the DoubleTree Hotel, 222 N. Vineyard Ave.