ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, May 20, 1996 TAG: 9605200134
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: FLO GRAHAM
DWAYNE Yancey's May 7 article (``Does state gravy train bypass Southwest Virginia?'') describes well the need for Southwest and Northern Virginians to better understand each other. If those in both regions knew more about each other, the gravy train could become the mashed potato-and-gravy express, running straight up and down Interstate 81.
The Virginia Economic Bridge, a not-for-profit organization, is working to bring Southwest and Northern Virginians together, by ``crossing information gaps and linking business opportunities to build bridges over trade and communication barriers that separate Northern and Western Virginia.''
Yancey's article describes the information gaps that create hostility that's destructive to economic growth for the commonwealth. He quotes several angry Southwest Virginians who object to the state supporting a baseball stadium in Northern Virginia that ``the rest of us in the `end of the work part of Virginia' would have to pay for.'' Yancey goes on to explain how the notion of freeloading Northern Virginia is not true. ``In fact,'' he writes, ``it's the other way around - Northern Virginia is helping to subsidize Western Virginia.''
Using the theory of comparative advantage, we all become richer when we subsidize each other - sharing our strengths to help eliminate our weaknesses. Opportunities exist between the regions; each is rich in its own way. Northern Virginia's economy is vibrant, however costly. Southwest Virginia is rich with a plentiful work force, varied natural resources like land, and fast, easily accessible transportation systems.
We citizens of Virginia need to figure out how we can share our wealth. How do we use what we have to make all of us stronger and richer? One way is for Southwest Virginia to provide an infrastructure of support operations for Northern Virginia business and industry.
Major corporations from the urban region improve their bottom lines when they have all their accounting operations, for example, performed by workers in Southwest Virginia where the cost of doing business is significantly less. Southwest Virginians benefit by being able to remain in the beautiful Blue Ridge while earning wages that increase as the Northern Virginia company grows and continues to expand its need for operational services.
By the way, this is already happening. Northern Virginia's telephone-directory service is provided exclusively by operators in Norton, located in the coalfields, and in Pulaski County in the New River Valley.
Another way for us to increase wealth in the commonwealth is to encourage Northern Virginia businesses to buy products and services from Southwest Virginia businesses. Mobil Corp. in Fairfax purchased $3.2 million in uniforms from Lebanon Apparel in Lebanon, and created 60 new jobs for the area. Mobil says it made the best business deal possible in Lebanon, and it has continued to purchase its uniforms there for three years.
The Virginia Procurement Pipeline, a project of the Virginia Economic Bridge, was created to facilitate ``Buying Virginia.'' The pipeline is a database of Virginia businesses that's presently being used by 300 Virginia purchasing officers, and will soon be available to the world on the Worldwide Web. In its floppy-disk format, it has generated close to $1 million in procurement among Virginians.
Southwest and Northern Virginians must become aware of each other's turf and take ownership as Virginians together. While there are differences between the people of the urban Northern region and the largely rural Southwestern part of our state, there's a basic similarity - and that's the spirit of entrepreneurship. For Southwest Virginians, this spirit manifests itself in a service-friendly culture, a key component to vigorous economic development. For Northern Virginians, there's a sense of history and kinship to this Appalachian spirit that makes a partnership between the two regions even more palatable and profitable.
By linking and sharing educational, industrial and business resources, we are, in essence, developing a strategy that could make us a model for the entire country.
It's imperative that Northern and Southwest Virginians know one another, and use their individual strengths for the growth and development of both regions. We must be connected if the commonwealth is to be economically competitive and our citizens are to enhance their quality of life.
Flo Graham is president of Virginia Economic Bridge, a partnership between Southwest and Northern Virginia. Her main headquarters is at Radford University's Business Assistance Center.
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