The San Diego region is poised to strengthen its economy through increased global activity. In an increasingly integrated world economy, more strategic global economic engagement will prove crucial to San Diego’s sustained economic competitiveness. With a keen understanding of San Diego’s current situation and a collective desire to improve the region’s global position, key stakeholders have organized themselves around one unifying goal: maximize San Diego’s economic competitiveness and prosperity through increased global engagement.
From “Go Global San Diego: A Global Trade and Investment Initiative,” March 2015
Given its very mission – “… preparing graduates to excel in an entrepreneurial environment and a maturing global market,” the international composition of its student body, its partnerships with other institutions around the globe, and its focus on an international curriculum and cultural intelligence, CIBU is poised to contribute to the “Go Global San Diego” initiative. To be sure, CIBU is doing much to ensure that San Diego moves toward “increased global engagement.”
On March 11, Dr. William Howe, CIBU’s Dean of Academic Affairs, attended the “Go Global San Diego” meeting in nearby La Jolla. Over 300 people attended this important meeting, including Mayor Kevin Faulconer, members of the San Diego City Council, and leaders from business, education, law, science, and other areas of San Diego professional life. The focus of the meeting and subsequent initiatives related to the meeting is clear: San Diego has a unique opportunity at this point to become increasingly global, but it has some work to do in order to maximize its potential: At present, for example, San Diego is the 17th largest metro as measured by GDP in the United States, but it is 61st in export intensity and 49th in percentage of jobs in foreign-owned firms. CIBU, though certainly a small part of the San Diego economy and of the area’s GDP, has a unique international focus that in many ways encapsulates the “Go Global San Diego” spirit. Its name, its internationally attuned faculty, and its international student body epitomize the importance of the region’s global identity. Moreover, through its collaborative approach with San Diego businesses, CIBU echoes the “Go Global San Diego” emphasis on a “collaborative approach drawing on the relative strengths of dedicated government, industry, and academic partners.” To be sure, CIBU is one of the academic partners that most directly advances global identity.
San Diego is ready to increase its global identity. CIBU already has a global identity within San Diego. Going forward there is much room for productive synergy.
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