editorials

It's hard to believe that as recently as 20 years ago, a Minnesota governor was derided as "Goofy" for traveling abroad to widen the channels for trade and understanding between this state and other countries.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty is on such a mission this week in India, and any critic who would fault his visit to one of the world's fastest-growing economies is hopelessly out of date. Pawlenty is playing a role that may have been groundbreaking in the late Gov. Rudy Perpich's day but has become routine for American governors in today's global economy. Governors are expected to employ the clout and visibility of their offices to make the connections upon which international business arrangements are built.

The itineraries of the governor and First Lady Mary Pawlenty are loaded with connection-building activities. They're standing alongside Minnesota businesspeople who seek to sell more goods and services in India and Indian investors who are, or soon will be, bringing job-producing operations here. The value of a gubernatorial blessing to those deal makers is clear.

Less obvious, but as important, is the understanding of the global economy that a governor gains overseas and brings home via his bully pulpit.

Pawlenty put that pulpit to good use Wednesday in a media conference call from Bangalore. He noted that while once known for its low-cost labor, India's high-tech economy faces the prospect of 500,000 engineering positions going begging by 2012.

In other words, India soon will share the problem that's already pinching growth in some sectors of the American economy -- a shortage of skilled labor.

But, Pawlenty noted, with more than half its population younger than 25 and an economy growing fast enough to support a surge in education spending, India may be better positioned to close its skilled labor gap -- unless states such as Minnesota dramatically increase their output of young scientists and engineers. "It's imperative that we succeed with increasing the number of engineers and related fields in our country, and we have a lot of work to do in that regard," Pawlenty said.

He didn't need to go to India to see the looming shortage. Fact is, he's been talking about the problem for more than a year and has spurred the creation of the STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) initiative by the state Department of Education and several business sponsors. (See www.mn-stem.com.)

But seeing firsthand both the competitive pressure and the trading opportunity that India represents for Minnesota gives Pawlenty a new handle on the skilled labor gap. It also ought to provide the impetus for more effective state efforts to close it.