The world around us continues to accelerate. Every eighteen months, computers are twice as fast and half as big. Every year researchers find cures for 'incurable' disease. Every six months the World Wide Web doubles in size. Every day the global economy expands. Technology has increased our rate of acceleration to an astounding pace, redefining the modem workplace, school, hospital, and community in ways we could not have imagined.

At the same time, the wage gap between educated and uneducated workers continues to grow, labor intensive jobs are replaced by machines or moved to foreign countries, and local firms are now forced to compete in the global market. In recent years, the four-state region has been especially hard-hit by these trends. With its older, industrial infrastructure it has been one of the first areas of the country to suffer from job loss and wage decline.

Campbell's Soup, the Naval Shipyard, and Scott Paper are just the beginning of a long list of major organizations that have simply packed-up and moved on to regions with more potential, taking their money and jobs. The most telling indication is that our brightest minds, the graduates from some of the best universities in the nation, leave our cities and apply their skills elsewhere. The result is a region that is in decline and behind the times in terms of technology, economic growth, and key infrastructure.

As regional leaders we are tasked with developing initiatives that will halt this decline and establish the region as a vibrant, growing economy for the twenty-first century. But the environment in which we work is changing, and we cannot afford to tackle these new problems with obsolete and ineffective solutions, Political leaders usually work to protect their parochial interests, often ignoring problems and solutions that cross state and local borders. Worse, in most cases steps are taken only after companies and organizations have decided to depart, too late to have any significant impact.

To succeed in the next century, we must take proactive and future-oriented steps to establish the region as an economic leader. In the wake of the information transformation, these steps must develop a strong educational environment, emphasize the use of information technology, and define a competitive edge for regional business and industry. The impetus for regional development is clear, all over the globe our competitors have already begun. In Singapore, which already produces students who score higher on math and science tests than their American counterparts, they have developed a 'Smart Region' capable of using the latest advancements in information and data technology. Malaysia is close behind, and even Canada is taking steps in this direction.

Currently, the four-state region has three regional initiatives that meet these criteria, any one of which could drive the regional economy in the global market. These initiatives are the Engineering Center of Excellence, which is already working on million dollar contracts for the defense agencies and currently employs more than 1,600 people; The Global Health-Care Marketplace, which unites the regional health care facilities and markets their services around the globe; and HUBS, the nation's first information technology infrastructure.

Although we are still several years away from the next century, other regions have already begun to plan their economic success. All over the globe, these regions have an excellent industrial base, strong educational systems, and a competitive advantage. They are smart, fast, and ahead in the race. As regional leaders, we have the opportunity to raise our region to the next level, or face the fate of a declining industrial center. Rustbelt or Renaissance, the choice seems clear, but to accomplish this task, we must move quickly, proactively, and in an organized fashion.