Most Bay Area residents want more international connections

“A super majority of 88 percent of Bay Area residents feel that ‘all in all’ greater business, personal and cultural connections between the Bay Area and other countries is a good thing, according to the 2007 Bay Area Council Poll of 600 residents released today. Further, 74 percent of residents think their local, state and federal elected representatives should work to encourage greater Bay Area trade and business ties with other countries… ‘These results are astonishing for at least two reasons,’ said Jim Wunderman the president and CEO of the Bay Area Council. ‘First, in the Bay Area where its hard to find agreement on any issue, residents almost unanimously favor greater trade rather than protectionist barriers to trade. Second, just a few years ago the Bay Area seemed to be caught in a great panic over outsourcing and enmity towards international business ties. That fear has vanished. Clearly, the Bay Area residents now recognize our region as a hub of the global economy’. “