Gov. Jan Brewer announced that former Congressman Jim Kolbe will serve as co-chairman of the Arizona Transportation and Trade Corridor Alliance. In February, the governor announced the formation of the panel comprised of statewide and local experts in transportation, international trade and energy.
Kolbe, who served Arizona in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1985 to 2007, has continued to focus on issues related to international trade since leaving office. He currently serves as a senior transatlantic fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States; senior adviser to McLarty Associates, a strategic consulting firm; co-chairman of the Transatlantic Taskforce on Development and of the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network (MFAN). He also serves on the boards of numerous organizations, including Freedom House, the International Republican Institute and the Southern Arizona Community Food Bank.
Kolbe and Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) director John Halikowski will serve as co-chairmen of the Transportation and Trade Corridor Alliance. The pair will facilitate discussions among the alliance’s steering-committee members and stakeholders.
In February 2012, Brewer asked that ADOT lead the Transportation and Trade Corridor Alliance as part of an initiative to strengthen the state’s ability to compete for economic development and jobs. ADOT, in collaboration with the Arizona-Mexico Commission and the Arizona Commerce Authority, will bring together public and private sector partners to assess opportunities for Arizona to pursue investments in trade corridors such as the newly-designated Interstate 11, and to explore enhancements to border infrastructure.
The alliance will help identify how best to take advantage of the state’s current resources and guide future investment in a strategic way to increase the capacity of existing corridors all with the ultimate goal of improving Arizona’s competitiveness in a global marketplace.
