Huntsman has grand plans for June economic summit

"Can we cure all of the ills that might exist in the marketplace? Absolutely not. Can we do something? There's no question about that. I think this is where we begin. We give an ear to small business, we give an ear to those businesses that want to stay here and want to grow, who will pay the bills, who are employing our people, and we'll do something about it."

The governor said Utah must do a better job identifying its competitive advantages. Among the ones he listed Thursday are biotechnology, health sciences and medical devices; aerospace design and engineering; information technology; and gas and oil.

"I truly do believe that biotechnology and the way in which we deliver health care and identify disease and cure disease, or at least manage disease, will in every way play the role that the IT industry did the last 20 years, which is the industry that fueled economic growth over the last 20 years," he said.

As for oil and gas, Utah can explore for those resources in an environmentally friendly way, "but we are basically running at a 10 percent utilization rate when compared with the likes of Colorado and New Mexico," he said.

"We have the resources here, if we were to even come close to where some of our neighbors are in terms of gas and oil exploration," Huntsman said. "If we could even tap into renewable energies — wind and solar, which I think holds tremendous promise for the future of this state — we would be off in an industrial sector the likes of which, I think, this state has not seen before."

---

E-mail: bwallace@desnews.com