Category: From the VP

I’m back on campus from a week-long visit to Singapore with the Seattle Metro Chamber of Commerce and I can safely say that 65 degrees and low humidity never felt so refreshing.  After my long plane ride home and a few days

to recover from jet lag, I’m starting to try and formulate some major takeaways from the trip that might end up being beneficial for our state and our university.  Here are three major lessons I gleaned from this visit.

First, Singapore and all of Southeast Asia has become a critical part of the world and our state’s economy.  The 10 nations that comprise the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) (of which Singapore is a member) has the 3^rd largest population in the world and a GDP of $2.4 trillion.  It’s the 5^th largest economy in the world and will

likely eclipse the European Union for 4^th place by 2050.  The state of Washington is the nation’s third largest exporter to ASEAN behind California and Texas, accounting for almost 47,000 jobs in the Evergreen State.  Singapore has truly become the Gateway to ASEAN so strengthening economic, cultural and educational ties with this powerful nation-state is clearly in our state’s interest.

Second, Singapore is relentlessly transforming its economy into one based on knowledge and innovation. For a nation with no natural resources to speak of, Singapore realized early on in its history that their economic future would be based on attracting and retaining the best workers in the world. Today, every first world economy is trying to win the “human capital” competition since the nation with the best ideas for new products and industries will be the winners in the 21^st century economic sweepstakes.

So how does a nation of less than 6 million people (one third of whom are from Europe, North America and other non-Singaporean nations), compete with the U.S., China and other stronger economies? The answer came from a dinner conversation I had with a U.S. native currently working in Singapore for an autonomous vehicle start-up

called Nutonomy. According to this MIT grad who manages the company’s operations, Singapore went out of their way to both recruit Nutonomy to the country and then bent over backwards to help them establish a base of operations and clear regulatory hurdles to make testing the cars on city streets much easier than the U.S. I heard variations of this same story from other U.S. companies located in Singapore from Microsoft, Expedia, IBM and Tableau – Singapore’s government is a true partner with the business community and goes out of their way to make things easy for them to conduct and expand their business.

Third, Singapore is able to work and speak with a singular voice and focus because there is really only one level of government and one ruling political party in the entire nation. As a city-state, the People’s Action Party has ruled Singapore since its birth more than 50 years ago. There are no states, cities, counties or special district government entities to deal with as we have in the U.S. and the legal system is not used as a way of slowing down or stopping government initiatives. While Singapore is not a complete totalitarian state as their citizens do enjoy some freedoms, dissent is not tolerated and security is very tight. While I’m still convinced American democracy and government is still the envy of the world, the ability of Singapore to execute and coordinate economic growth strategy while simultaneously looking 10-15 years ahead and laying the groundwork now for future success is truly enviable.

Here in Washington and the Puget Sound region in particular, we do plan for the present and the future in a coordinated and thoughtful way. Our political system, however, can oftentimes make following through on these plans clunky at best based on leadership changes resulting from elections or lack of trust among different political jurisdictions. As with any of these delegation visits, time will tell if we can take the best of what we’ve learned and adapt it successfully for our unique Pacific Northwest sensibilities.

I’m currently visiting the nation of Singapore as part of a delegation from the Seattle Metro Chamber of Commerce.  This is my first visit to this tiny island nation and it’s been a truly eye-opening experience on a number of fronts.

Born as a nation in 1965 after more than a century of British colonial rule, this city-state of less than 6 million people has rapidly become one of the most advanced nations in the world with architecture and infrastructure that is truly 21^st century and an economy based on global trade and knowledge-based industries committed to innovation.  It’s a place where research universities like the National University of Singapore work hand in hand with government and business to advance the industries of tomorrow.  From clean energy, to artificial intelligence to smart cities to biomedical research, Singapore is pulling together in the same direction and it’s quite astounding to see.

I’m well aware that democracy in Singapore does not flourish quite the same way it does in the U.S. or other western democracies and that dissent is not well-tolerated.  However, the amount of money that the government puts into “common good” needs like housing, mass transportation, parks and green spaces and health care is admirable and ensures that basic needs of citizens are well provided for.

Tonight we will have a reception at the U.S. ambassador’s residence where I will have a chance to meet some of our UW alumni who live and work in Singapore.  We have more than 500 Huskies in the country and I’m anxious to meet them and learn more about this amazing place where innovation is happening everyday.

Fascinating monthly meeting of the Seattle Metro Chamber of Commerce this week where we had presentations on several major construction projects that are both underway and being planned for the city and the region in the next 5 years or so.  Most of these initiatives are sorely needed as Seattle and Puget Sound continue to struggle with infrastructure that is too small or outdated to handle the rapid population growth we are currently experiencing.  Here’s a list of the updates we received this week on projects underway or in the pipeline:

• SeaTac Expansion. Our airport is the ninth busiest in the United States but woefully undersized compared to the current volume of traffic (more than 45 million passengers per year) and projections for the future (66 million in the next two decades).  Construction is already underway to expand the North Satellite facility and to construct a new international arrivals facility on the south portion of the airport.  Baggage handling and the central terminal are also being upgraded.  For more on Sea Tac Airport expansion, check out tomorrowatsea-tac.com.

• SR 99 Tunnel and Alaskan Way Viaduct. The long awaited state route 99 tunnel under Seattle is almost completed and that means that demolition of the Alaskan Way Viaduct will occur sometime early in 2019.  To prepare for the relocation of the waterfront Alaskan Way arterial, the Viaduct is scheduled to be closed this fall for three weeks which will certainly result in some traffic challenges as cars and trucks look for alternate routes through the city.

• Waterfront Seattle Construction. Once the Viaduct is taken down, work can begin in earnest on the Waterfront where a massive park project is being planned that will reconnect the city to its historic waterfront.  The rebuilt Seawall was part of this effort but many other improvements are in the works from new bike and pedestrian trails, expansion of the Seattle Aquarium, creation of a floating dock at Piers 62 and 63 and much more.  Check out friendsofwaterfrontseattle.org for more information.

• Convention Center. Just this week the Seattle City Council voted to move forward on a massive expansion of the Washington State Convention Center – a 1.4 million square foot expansion that will double the size of the current Convention Center.  The project will be constructed at Ninth Avenue and Pine Street and will result in the closure of Convention Station driving buses out of the downtown tunnel above ground.  This will put more pressure on light rail as the best way to get to and through downtown Seattle and the UW is working with Metro and other transit partners to bring more buses from the Eastside to Husky Stadium where riders can use the light rail to get downtown instead of having the buses continue into the city.

Seems like a lot to go through doesn’t it?  And I haven’t even touched on Sound Transit 2 projects currently underway north of campus and east of the lake through I-90, and south to Federal Way.  To be sure, it’s going to be even harder getting around the city and the region in the next several years but there will be a payoff by 2023 and 2024 that should improve both mobility and livability in our fast growing metropolis.

Each year the Seattle Metro Chamber of Commerce takes a delegation of political, business, education and non profit leaders to visit another U.S. city to learn how they are growing their economy and addressing challenges all big cities face from transportation to homelessness.

This year I’m proud to be joining the Chamber’s intercity study mission to Denver — like Seattle a fast growing and vibrant city that is also dealing with the same issues Seattle is struggling with as a  result of their hot economy.

This morning we heard from a panel of business leaders about how they formed a regional economic development organization that works on behalf of nine counties in the Denver area — a true regional approach that the central Puget Sound cities and counties are just now working to create.

This afternoon we are visiting The Commons on Champa — a former police facility that now is an epicenter of Denver’s startup community.

Like Seattle too, Denver benefits from a strong higher education community anchored by the University of Colorado that has a strong presence in the city even though the main campus is located in nearby Boulder.

Our delegation wraps up our visit tomorrow afternoon.

When I first started as a young legislative staffer in California in the early 1980’s, I got my very first upfront taste of partisan divides on a variety of policy issues between Democrats and Republicans.  Big government or small government?  Longer prison sentences or more rehabilitation?  Increased or decreased welfare payments, they argued about most everything.  But over the years, as I progressed in my career and relocated back to Washington, I noticed that when it came to higher education, both sides of the aisle seemed to agree it was a good thing.

Perhaps there wasn’t enough money every budget cycle to fund the system appropriately, but the idea that everyone who was qualified should have the opportunity to earn a college degree wasn’t a partisan issue.  And more importantly, universities were seen as a trusted source for information and research.

So this latest Gallup Poll has me concerned.  Confidence in U.S. colleges is quite different depending on your political orientation with more than half of Democrats having a great deal of confidence in higher education and only a third of Republicans feeling the same way.  According to Gallup, much of Republicans low confidence stems from a belief that universities are liberally biased and don’t allow students to think for themselves or be allowed to advocate a more conservative agenda.  Democrats with low confidence in U.S. colleges point to skyrocketing tuition and deteriorating quality.

While there are surely some colleges and universities that fit one or some of these partisan stereotypes, my experience is that public research universities like the UW are much more open and tolerant of a variety of viewpoints and certainly of both high quality and more affordable than the average voter might think.

The challenge of course for all of public higher education is getting this message out to taxpayers and prospective students and their families.  Given these sobering poll results, it’s a challenge we cannot afford not to address.