Remarks by S. Shariq Yosufzai
CalChamber Chair
Vice President, Chevron Corporation
Sacramento Host Breakfast
June 2, 2011
Thank you for that very kind introduction, Dan [Cole].
On behalf of the Chamber, ladies and gentlemen, and our more than 15,000 members, I’d like to thank Dan and the Host Committee for organizing this event. We’re greatly privileged to have Governor Brown with us this morning, and we appreciate his leadership and look forward to hearing his remarks.
Like all of you, I have a personal stake in our state’s future. California has been my home for 10 years. Dale [Carlsen], unlike you, who was born in California, I was not born here, but I got here as soon as I could.
Compared to Dale and others, I am still considered a relative newcomer. California, and the idea of California, has had a prominent place in my thoughts for as long as I can remember. It has always represented opportunity; it has always represented achievement; to me, it has always represented excitement. It has been an aspirational destination because it has all the elements of a fulfilling life.
I’ve lived and worked in more than 35 countries and visited more than 80. As an immigrant and as an engineer pursuing an international career, I spent most of my life traveling, discovering new cultures and assimilating new situations.
I wouldn’t trade any of those experiences. They enriched my understanding and prepared me to recognize — and I mean this sincerely — that nowhere else in the world will we find a quality of life that exceeds what we can discover right here in California. I’m proud to call it home.
As Dale has so wonderfully articulated, California is a most exceptional place. From the beauty of its geography, to the richness of its cultural amenities, California has it all.
On an economic basis, the state has natural strengths that provide the foundation for wide prosperity and unmatched opportunities.
These strengths — an outstanding system of higher education that is the model and the envy of other institutions around the globe, an exceptional climate, an aging but effective trade infrastructure, a large size, a well-educated workforce and the overall diversity of our economy — make California a natural powerhouse.
No other state is holding higher cards than California, but it’s time to start playing our hand wisely. We need a clear-eyed strategy to get our state back on top and the discipline to see it through.
I’ve worked around the world, most recently in Singapore, but I’ve also worked in Houston, in Africa and Europe and Australia. And the one thing that I’ve found is a common denominator in each place with a thriving economy was that intention — both implicit and explicit — in supporting business growth and expansion.
Whatever your priorities might be, whatever your politics might be, the future of our state is at stake and that is a call that should summon us all to the challenge, and summon us in a united and collaborative spirit.
I believe that the attributes of our state and the leadership provided by Governor Brown to make the tough decisions will regain our global leadership position, but we cannot postpone action any longer. There is hard work ahead for everyone, and we must all come together as we rediscover the pathway to prosperity.
Much of the work will fall on the shoulders of many of you here, the governor, the legislators —but you are not in this alone. The scale of the problems confronting our state demands a practical, constructive, and most importantly, unified approach from all parties. We need to solve this together.
The private sector has a vital role. California must grow its way out of this dilemma and the businesses of this state will lead that growth, if we have the right conditions.
The good soil of sound fiscal and regulatory policies and the sunlight of economic opportunity can still lead to an amazing bounty of jobs and of prosperity.
The presence of so many of you today — almost twelve hundred — demonstrates that the business community is at the table and we stand ready to do our part as responsible stakeholders in the restoration of California’s promise.
As we all know, basic fiscal solvency is a bedrock requirement for a sound economy.
When we pay more trying to unwind yesterday’s decisions than we are investing in tomorrow, it’s clear that spending restraint is among our most pressing needs.
California must emerge from the shadow of debt and our chronic overspending. We must make important steps to restoring accountability and certainty to the state.
Governor Brown’s reputation as a leader willing to make the tough calls provides us all hope that he will impose new discipline on the current system.
Part of the problem is breaking down and through the sense of entitlement and complacency about our state’s position in relation to our competitors.
For far too long, policymakers have ignored the economic competition that has lured businesses to other states and to other countries.
Our state can no longer rest on its laurels, relying on our natural advantages to offset the superior business climates others are creating.
We can win. But we will only succeed if we deserve to win.
California’s unemployment rate is hovering around 12 percent. New York — another state with a large population, but much fewer positive attributes — is about a third lower. That disparity means some humble curiosity is in order.
Those setting direction for the state should look around the country, determine what’s working and adopt those policies here.
We need to reignite our business climate and restore our competitive advantages.
In so many ways, California has benefited from its openness to diversity, taking the best of all the cultures and traditions from around the globe, improving them, and making them our own.
We need to operate with the same sense of discovery in seeking to build a sound business climate.
In my mind — and I’m sure in all of yours — we see the day when things are no longer upside down — we hope to see California restored to its proper place, as the benchmark that others flock to study.
We need to follow Governor Brown’s lead in working to restore order and fiscal responsibility. Many of the steps we need to take are already known.
The Chamber’s renewal agenda outlines an action plan to restore the biggest gaps in our business climate. The overarching goals are simple:
- Reducing the costs to employ people stemming from lawsuits and burdensome regulation.
- Encouraging investments with a stable and fair tax system.
- Rebuilding our trade infrastructure of roads, bridges, rail, ports and airports.
- Delivering the world-class education that forms the backbone of a globally competitive workforce.
- And bringing transparency and accountability to government at all levels.
Achieving those goals will reassure the business community, it will provide certainty to investors and introduce the right conditions to support another golden age of California.
An important component will be rebuilding our manufacturing base. The manufacturing multiplier effect spreads benefits widely across an economy.
California retains its leading position in the knowledge economy, but we should ask ourselves what is preventing cutting-edge products from being manufactured here?
I’ve seen what incentives and sound policies can achieve during my four years in Singapore, and there are a lot of colleagues and members of the diplomatic community from Singapore here today.
And they will tell you that Singapore is far from a low-cost market, yet targeted policies have helped Singapore attract flourishing sectors in pharmaceuticals, in manufacturing and biotech. That model will work here, too.
The Chamber has identified a number of key economic facets of recovery, but in the interests of time, I’m going to focus on three that touch my business most directly.
- Let’s start with education. It is central to our competitiveness. This is an area that is crying out for reforms, reforms that increase accountability and aspire to the type of achievements that we saw from our schools in Oakland that Governor Brown started.
As a technology company that produces energy, Chevron recognizes that STEM education — science, technology, engineering and mathematics — are all critical to our success and that of our home state.
- Affordable, reliable energy is another pillar of competitiveness. California is a long-standing leader in promoting energy efficiency, but a growing population and an expanding economy will require more energy.
We must ensure that the infrastructure is in place to deliver that energy when it is needed.
- Finally, adopting a comprehensive budget solution would send a powerful signal that California is once again reopened for business.
Creating certainty for businesses will remove one of the biggest obstacles to economic growth.
These steps are needed and we all need to come together and become committed to achieving them.
The California Chamber is prepared to stand behind and beside Governor Brown and all those who are committed to reclaiming California’s economic strength and with it our legacy, our rightful legacy, of global leadership.