I

t's far too soon to write the book about Gov. Chris Gregoire's impact on the economic prospects of Washington state. But it's not too soon for the business and economic development communities to take the temperature of the state as a location for key industries 18 months into her administration.
   Perhaps due in part to a determination to prove to Washingtonians that she has the right stuff following a bitterly contested gubernatorial race in 2004, Gregoire is finding appreciative audiences around the state as she moves quickly to make key industries more competitive and stresses the importance of promoting one Washington, rather than thinking in terms of eastern Washington and western Washington. For ages, note many, people have thought of the state in terms of the dry, mainly rural eastern region (the main metros are Spokane, Walla Walla and the Tri- Cities of Richland, Pasco and Kennewick) and the moister, more industrial western region (think Boeing, Microsoft and the I- 5 corridor connecting Bellingham in the north with the Vancouver/ Portland, Ore., metro area and Seattle and Tacoma in the middle).    "If only we could get six million Washingtonians to understand that we really are more like a small nation, imagine what we could achieve," she told a gathering of business leaders from the western part of the state known as the Prosperity Partnership, who were in Spokane as part of a tour of eastern Washington businesses and communities. The point of the tour was to facilitate cross- pollination of industry resources on both sides of the Cascade Mountains.
   "If I go to Yakima, Washington, and I say, 'we are more like a small nation and that we are highly dependent on trade and the global marketplace,' they all nod their heads," says Gregoire. "When [Mexico] President Vicente Fox comes to Yakima and talks about agriculture and importance of trade around the world, they get it."
   Chinese President Hu Jintao had just visited Washington state, and more recently, Gregoire met with British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell and participated in the first ever cabinet exchange to explore ways to work together. All of which underlines the governor's belief in positioning all of Washington as a key player on the world trade and investment stage.
   "We need to be ourselves – entrepreneurial and creative," the governor told the audience. "We need to think in terms of 21st century industry, such as life sciences, which we addressed with the Life Sciences Discovery Fund in 2005 [to support appropriate R&D initiatives in the state]. Thank goodness we got on that train, because if we had failed to do so, we would have failed ourselves as a small nation."