Gluba has global vision for Davenport

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By Tory Brecht | Sunday, September 7, 2008 10:16 PM CDT | () comments

Davenport Mayor Bill Gluba plans to jump start international economic development in Davenport using the city’s decades-old Sister Cities Committee.

For years, the sister cities program has served as a vehicle for cultural exchanges and friendly visits between Davenporters and residents in Germany, Brazil and Ireland.

While such “citizen diplomacy” should be lauded, more needs to be done to lure international companies to expand in Davenport and find new global markets for products produced here, Gluba said.

“When we do sister city visits in the future, we want to go to plants, factories and businesses and make it more of an economic-oriented trip rather than cultural,” Gluba said. “It’s been more of a cultural exchange, and I don’t see that having a significant impact on us in terms of economic development.”

To that end, Gluba appointed new members to the Sister Cities Committee with international business experience. In addition, he has asked Cynthia Maccotan — the city’s new economic development program manager — to become a liaison to the committee, responsible for following up on potential new business leads.

Maccotan, who started work in Davenport in June after leaving her job as a planner in Seattle, has hit the ground running.

Combing through the minutes of visits by sister city ambassadors to Carlow County, Ireland, and Ilheus, Brazil, she found two potential leads.

A company in Ireland that makes the wax ropes that secure bags of Purina pet food and sandbags has been looking for a site for a U.S.-based plant. A coffee bean importer from Ilheus is interested in a plant here, as well.

“I read that in the minutes and thought, ‘There’s a contact,’ ” she said.

Since then, Maccotan has been e-mailing economic development officials in those cities to explore the possibility of joint incentive packages that could benefit the cities and the companies.

“It’s been my experience from working on the West Coast that sister cities organizations have been used to do international economic development and to open up commerce,” she said.

Tony Worthington, who heads up Deere & Co.’s worldwide construction and forestry division, is one of Gluba’s new appointees. He lauds the mayor for his boldness in using the Sister Cities Committee to market Davenport as an international city.

The key going forward, he said, is to develop action strategies to bear business fruit.

“Business spins out of relationships in all places,” he said. “Those relationships create contacts, the contacts create conversations, and the conversations build business opportunities.”

Worthington said the committee must avoid the pitfall of repeating work the Quad-City Development Group and Iowa Department of Economic Development are already doing on behalf of Davenport and the Quad-Cities as a whole.

Gluba said the committee should work with, not in competition against, those groups.

“There’s more than enough work for everyone to do” in marketing the area internationally, he said.

Kitty Dougherty, chairwoman of the Sister Cities Committee, said the focus is a new emphasis for the group. She thinks the mission of citizen diplomacy and economic development can go hand-in-hand.

A subcommittee has been formed to promote economic development, and it will involve area business people with international experience.

“I think the key is we get as many citizens of Davenport as possible involved in this process,” she said. “We need participation from community members.”

Gluba is also pushing hard for establishing a new relationship with a city in China, preferably one where a global company like Deere does business.

“I think the next wave of investment in this country is probably coming from China,” he said. “It’s the fastest-growing economy in the world, and they have a lot of our money now.”

Worthington noted that Deere recently announced a new acquisition in China and has a growing number of personnel in that country.

Cultural understanding and sensitivity, as well as close relationships, are vital in doing business there, he said.

“The thing about these countries is, you need people on the ground with specific expertise,” he said. “We need to get people who have lived there or been there and get their insight.”

Gluba said Davenport has the opportunity to be a leader, rather than a follower, if the effort succeeds.

“We’re trying to market Davenport as an international city and become distinctively known in Iowa as a place for international business,” he said. “No other city in Iowa has marketed itself the way I want to market us. We’ve got an international airport, we’re an international port of entry, we’ve got railroad and river transportation, and we’re at the crossroads of America. We haven’t marketed that enough.”

Calling cards

Davenport Mayor Bill Gluba is trying to make good on a campaign promise of marketing Davenport as an international city. As part of the effort, city staff has created “calling cards” touting Davenport’s features with the aim of attracting global investment:

Designated America’s “most livable small city”

International and municipal airport

U.S. Port of Entry

Global campus for Rock Island Arsenal Department of Defense

Crossroads of commerce at Interstate 80 and the Mississippi River

Award-winning schools and colleges

World-class hospital system

Wireless community and digital fiber optic network

Regional center for the arts

International community sustainability award

Sister cities

Davenport has three sister cities.

Kaiserslautern, Germany

Became sister city in 1960

Located in southwest corner of Germany

Population: 99,469

Major industries: Information and communications technology

Ilheus, Brazil

Became sister city in 2005

Located on the east coast of Brazil

Population: 250,000

Major industries: Agricultural biotechnology and chocolate

manufacturing

County Carlow, Ireland

Became sister city in 2006

Located in southeast Ireland

Population: 50,349

Major industries: Appliance manufacturing, including an OralB Braun factory

Tory Brecht can be contacted at (563) 383-2329 or tbrecht@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at qctimes.com.