Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 21, 1995                   TAG: 9506220014
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

GOV. ALLEN

If a governor skips off to foreign lands and returns without an economy-enhancing development to announce, an impatient public may dismiss the mission as a junket or ego trip - no matter how much the governor insists that important groundwork has been laid for future benefits.

In fact, benefits may not come for years, sometimes not until long after the governor has left office and is given little if any credit. An immediate payoff is the exception rather than the rule - sometimes a matter of luck. And trade and investment decisions still follow not a salesman's line, but the bottom line.

Still, it would be wrong to attribute the results of Gov. George Allen's recent 12-day European trade mission purely to serendipity or grandstanding. The governor has proved himself an adept marketer for Virginia. He claims to have closed four deals worth an estimated $43 million in new foreign investments in this state, with hints of more to come. And this follows trade hops he made to Canada and Mexico last summer, accompanied by announcements of more than $30 million in exports for Virginia businesses.

Allen has shown energy, enthusiasm and aggressive determination in pursuing new outlets for Virginia products and new jobs for Virginia residents, and his efforts are paying off.

Even political foes are complimentary of the governor's skills in the international marketplace. Says Del. Jay DeBoer, D-Petersburg: ``My tongue may fall off, but more power to Allen for doing this.''

More than any other recent Virginia governor save Democrat Gerald Baliles, Allen has made a genuine commitment to giving this state a higher profile in the world's business community. Like Baliles, he seems to understand that global competitiveness is a major component of any state's economic-development strategy, and this strategy requires a governor's wholehearted involvement. This is to Allen's credit.