business

MIAMI - Construction cranes dot the skyline here, as South Florida continues to build on its economic success. For the past 20 years, Miami and its environs have been working to fulfill its designation as a global city.

While much of the economic growth has come as a result of its geographic connection to Latin American markets, recent growth figures indicate that future growth will be much more diverse.

About 1,400 multinational companies representing more than 50 countries produce more than $200 billion in annual revenue, according to a study by the Beacon Council, Miami's chamber of commerce. South Florida boasts the largest concentration of banks south of New York City, with more than $60 billion in deposits.

While much of that comes from Latin America, new sources of multinational investment are coming from Europe and the Middle East. Recent statistics from the Washington-based group Inter-American Dialogue indicate that China's growing demand for Latin American raw materials (i.e. oil from Venezuela) and South Korea's new-found interest in Latin America will fuel even more direct investment that will be funneled through Miami.

Despite all this growth, much of the major building programs in downtown Miami reflect the city's need to catch up as a metropolitan area that can attract the highly educated, highly trained and highly paid future workers who will have to be recruited to work in the multinationals that continue to be attracted to the area.

Miami has launched a building program to establish itself as more than a tourist destination, but also as a center of culture and a place that offers a quality lifestyle.

To that end, a new symphony hall has been built along with a new opera house on the city's waterfront. In addition, a museum of modern art has been built along with several new residential buildings that hope to attract the hoped-for influx of city-dwelling executives.

But in order to fill Miami's cultural gaps, the Cleveland Orchestra performs much of its winter program here now. One of the more pleasant additions to the cultural scene has been the advent of a new classical music station called Classical South Florida, which features programming from Minnesota's KSJN Radio (99.5 FM).

Miami is not the only city to realize that competition in the global economy means not only competition for jobs but competition in recruiting the best talent needed to retain and expand those jobs.

Minneapolis and St. Paul launched a public relations campaign this month called "More to Life," designed to market the Twin Cities as a place that has a high quality of life and, therefore, should be viewed as a preferred market for new jobs and new talent.

I applaud the efforts of the Twin Cities and the pro bono talent that have decided that we can no longer sit back and hope that the rest of the world knows what we already know: That everything Miami is trying to catch up to, Minnesota has had in large quantities for a long time.

When you compare the effort being made by Miami to become a major draw for the future's best and brightest, there is hardly a comparison. Consider the following: the Minnesota Orchestra, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Minnesota Opera, the Guthrie Theater, the Ordway Center, the Walker Museum, the Science Museum of Minnesota, the Minnesota History Center, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

Those of us who moved to Minnesota by choice to make it our home know what we already have. The biggest challenge has been to get the powers that be to promote the Twin Cities and all of its attributes. Today the competition is fierce and will become even more so as the global economy expands.

I don't believe that Minnesota need fear being considered immodest. When it comes to the Twin Cities' global reputation, to paraphrase Ayn Rand, "It's not that I think of you badly. It's just that I don't think of you at all."

Miami's aspirations offer proof that the Twin Cities' "More to Life" initiative is right on track.