Nova Scotia Officials Visit KSG To Meet with Massachusetts Gov't and Business Leaders

Job creation and new investment were the driving forces behind a senior-level business summit between Massachusetts and Nova Scotia government and business leaders at the Kennedy School of Government this summer.

In an effort to build new strategic alliances in investment, trade, and educational exchange between Nova Scotia and Massachusetts, Nova Scotia Premier Russell MacLellan and Massachusetts Governor Paul Cellucci hosted the Inaugural Boston Business Summit in June. The Summit was at the Kennedy School and facilitated by members of the Harvard faculty.

The Premier and Governor, along with senior government leaders and prominent members of the private sector from both regions, focused on business development to promote more productive business and educational links and to create more jobs and regional investment. The Summit also provided an important platform for the Province of Nova Scotia's efforts in developing a Massachusetts trade and investment policy. The Summit explored ways for greater expansion into the New England market for Nova Scotia, building upon the areas' cultural similarities and putting a new technological emphasis on the two regions historic trading partnership.

"Greater business-to-business and government-to-government cooperation is a result we must actively pursue in the interest of all. I am convinced we can achieve a great deal together," said Gov. Cellucci.

A main focus of the Summit was the "Massachusetts Model," looking at the state's present economic prosperity and the evolution of that growth. The participants also discussed building a regional development process focusing on the importance of strategic management and facilitating trade and investment opportunities between Nova Scotia and Massachusetts.

In addition to the government representatives, Premier MacLellan and Governor Cellucci were joined by more than 60 business leaders from Massachusetts and Nova Scotia including David Mann, president and CEO of Nova Scotia Power; Robert Townes of Fidelity Investment; Joe Randall, president of Air Nova; Phil Haughey, president of The Haughey Development Company; Dorothy Spence from Tecknowledge Healthcare Systems; and David Tibbits, Massachusetts' Secretary of Economic Affairs.