Japan + Seattle A.I. Innovation Meetup 6.0 was an inbound trade mission connecting a dozen Japanese companies, including multinationals Mitsubishi Corporation, Fujitsu and Sojitz, with about 100 members of Washington’s tech startup community. The event is the sixth such business-to-business meetup since Commerce entered into a memorandum of cooperation with Japan and partnered with Tokyo-based Innovation Finders Capital and Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe. Japan is keenly interested in artificial intelligence…
Author Archives: Lisa Brown
“Making sure every person has a suitable place to live is one of the most critical areas of focus at Commerce.” — Connie Robins, Commerce Deputy Director Hundreds of partners work with Commerce every year to support Washington State Housing Trust Fund and affordable housing projects, strengthening communities all across the state. At the recent Housing Washington Conference in Spokane, Commerce Deputy Director Connie Robins acknowledged the many contributions of…
We congratulate and welcome Katerra to Spokane Valley, Washington! The innovative California-based company will open a 250,000-square-foot plant to make engineered wood products used in its own and potentially other residential developments, including the new Pine Valley Ranch and River House Senior Apartments in Spokane. Working closely with Gov. Inslee and our associate development organization partners at Greater Spokane, Inc., Commerce provided a $150,000 grant from the economic development strategic…
Canada and Mexico are two of our top export markets. Healthy relationship with our North American neighbors is very important to our local economy and critical to helping our country tackle some of our most pressing issues.
As is standard procedure at this point in the fiscal calendar, we have begun contingency planning for our various programs and contracts in case a budget deal is not reached by June 30 and we enter a partial government shutdown.
The federal Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) numbers out this month place Washington state’s economy as the fastest growing in the nation in 2016. With a 3.7% GDP growth rate, our diverse economy continues to thrive at more twice the national rate.
Commerce’s Housing Finance Unit recently used creative thinking to strengthen Seattle’s low-income community by identifying households eligible for the city’s utility discount program.
Spokane-based private utility Avista, and the Snohomish public utility SnoPUD, each were awarded $3.5 million from the Washington Clean Energy Fund.
Partners such as Hopelink Redmond allow us to deliver funding effectively. Through these relationships we are able to better serve communities.
Finding highly trained, ready skilled workers is a challenge for every industry, from information technology to aerospace. The marine trades are no different, and that sector is an important driver of economic vitality in many rural Washington communities, such as San Juan and Clallam counties. Commerce recently provided several grants from the strategic economic development account – a fund drawing from unclaimed Lottery dollars – to support customized training programs…