Nixon praises plan for China-Lambert cargo link
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
December 16, 2009
by Tim Bryant
Gov. Jay Nixon said today a couple of factors are at play toward a goal of reaching a deal next spring on establishing St. Louis as a Midwest hub for air cargo flights to and from China.
Nixon says that one factor is the recent decision to hire a consultant to make the deal happen. The Midwest China Hub Commission, the business and government group set up to bring a Chinese cargo operation to Lambert St. Louis International Airport, has agreed to hire Guenter Rohrmann.
The governor praised the consultant as someone who can do much to make the cargo hub dream a reality. Rohrmann, a renowned air freight expert and former top executive at DHL, is to be paid $931,000.
Factor two, according to Nixon, is the timing of the Chinese ambassador's return home. The governor says the ambassador is scheduled to "rotate" back to China in the spring. Cargo hub supporters have met several times with Ambassador Zhou Wenzhong. Just this month, he hosted a dinner at the Chinese Embassy in Washington for a group that included Nixon, most of the Missouri congressional delegation, Charlie Dooley and Steve Ehlmann-the county executives of St. Louis and St. Charles counties-and business leaders.
Nixon said Zhou's departure from Washington in a few months adds some urgency to get the hub deal done sooner rather than later.
The governor's enthusiasm for the cargo hub plan is recent. State lawmakers had directed $2 million towards the project in their 2009 budget. But Nixon froze those funds to help deal with Missouri's revenue shortfall. For months, Nixon resisted calls from St. Louis-area leaders to contribute $1.1 million to fund the Hub Commission - money that would pay Rohrmann's consulting fee - and in October said the state could afford just $300,000. A few weeks later he relented, agreeing to tap $1.1 million in federal economic development funds for the project.
Today, he had only good things to say about the hub after he toured the BioResearch & Development Growth Park at the Danforth Plant Science Center. Nixon was in St. Louis to push his proposal to divert an annual portion of new tax dollars from biotech companies to a specal state fund for new or expanding biotech entrepreneurs.
Nixon told Building Blocks that key to making the cargo hub a success would be China's demand for lots of Midwestern goods, including beef, pork and parts for heavy machinery.
