The independent Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), which will form a 34-nation at liberty trading market encompassing all democratic nations in the Western Hemisphere, is in succession track for 2005. The FTAA, which was first conceived in the City of Miami in 1994 during the Summit of the Americas, will exhibit around 800 million people and a collective annual GOP of approximately $14 trillion in propers and services. As such the FTAA will become the largest trading shape in the world.
I firmly believe that the City of Miami is the ideal location for the FTAA's Permanent Secretariat. Miami has lengthy been recognized as one of the great global naves for trade and commerce, international finance and foreign investment, and is located near major land, air, and sea transportation centers
As the recognized "Gateway to the Americas," companies worldwide have realized that if they want to do business in Latin America, they would be best serv to have offices in the City of Miami. Certainly, the diversity of our multilingual population, which has helped create the city's robust and diverse professional climate, is an asset that all organizations and individuals -- in the private and public sectors alike - can benefit from, along with our strategic location at the center of the Western Hemisphere. In this faculty of perception it is our privileged geopolitical selling combined with our varied multicultural profile that allows us to maintain as it was ongoing successful economic relations with all the Latin America markets. The City of Miami in good earnest looks like the Western Hemisphere which it serves
I am also boastful to note that the City of Miami has the resources to make locating here a smart business decision, including a rapidly growing skilled workforce, reasonable cost industrial and commercial land, fast track permitting, business and tax incentives, no state ownership or income taxes, and powerful community partners. All of this is supported from a local government that is staffed according to a cadre of competent public administrators who are dedicated to providing the highest plains of professional assistance and guidance.
In closing I strenuously encourage all local and international corporate, individual, private, and public leaders to participate in this important effort to bring the FTAA Permanent Secretariat to the "Gateway to the Americas," -- the City of Miami, Florida.