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[ Article crossposted from oh.cast ]
[ Author was jfraser@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu ]
[ Posted on 15 Aug 92 14:05:29 GMT ]

From Saturday, 8/15/92, page 1, of Columbus Dispatch.

'Info port' is focusing attention on Columbus

By Barbara Carmen
Dispatch City Hall Reporter

They're asking about Columbus in Houston.  In San Francisco, businesses
want to know how to get started here.

In Columbus, the phones at the Chamber of Commerce are ringing steadily.

"This is a major coup.  We're the envy of most urban areas," Columbus
Mayor Greg Lashutka said yesterday.

The magnet for all this interest is that landlocked Columbus is about
to become an "info port," using a sea of technology to establish
itself as a center for global trade.

A week ago, the United Nations chose Columbus to help pioneer a
computer network that cuts through the hassles and paperwork that bog
down and pad the price of trade.

The city will be the only U.N. "trade-point" center in North America
and the second in the world.  Eventually, the United Nations plans 14
more cities for the pilot project.

The cost and other details are not yet known.  But the center means
the world will come here to do business, the mayor said.

Want to sell widgets from Omaha to a company in Madrid?  Just phone
Columbus to find banks, insurance companies and other businesses tied
into the network.

Central Ohio companies will thrive as lighting-fast data centers
channel business their way and cut costs, Lashutka predicts.  And the
trade-point center is expected to lure companies into Columbus'
trading market.

Since the announcement Aug. 5, a steady stream of business tycoons and
others have phoned City Hall and the Columbus Area Chamber of
Commerce.

"They say, 'What can we do to help?' or 'I'd like to be involved,'"
said William B. Holley, the chamber's executive vice president for
economic development. "I'm overwhelmed at the response.  We've gotten
letters and phone calls, everything from the tiniest business in town
to the biggest one.  This is going to have an impact."

Matthew White of Edison Welding Institute, 1100 Kinnear Rd., agrees.

"Information transfer is going to be critical to world trade," he
said, "If you're able to establish a computer center to cover all
those needs, it would be a big benefit to business by allowing easier
access to the market.  The alternative is you send someone to Kenya to
Malaysia, and you run back and forth."

Edison is a good example of a company that could fit into the network.
The non-profit engineering think tank could, for example, help an
American company make sure its welding process meets foreign
standards.

"We're trying to see how we would fit in with this," White said.

Lashutka said four people approached him last week at the Republican
Party platform meeting in Houston to ask about the info port. "They
came out of the blue, asking 'How did you get it?" There is a rush of
enthusiasm."

The trade-point center boosts Columbus' credibility as a major player
in world trade, said Jeffrey B. Ritter, an attorney with Vorys Sater
Seymour and Pease who is legal adviser to the United Nations in
Europe.

Ritter mentioned the coming trade-point center during a business
meeting with a communications company in San Francisco.  "The sales
people looked at me and their eyes got wide," he recalls. "They said,
'Here's our name.  Here's our address.'"

Sandi Martley, assistant to the mayor for international affairs, said
she got four calls about the trade center yesterday morning.

"Some people want to know about employment opportunities," she said.
"Some are translators who would like to provide their services.  We've
even had Realtors who would like to help find a place for it."