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Andy Shaw is a contributing editor to Technology in Government. Please contact him at andy@biznewsbureau.com.
Canadian governments and their agencies aren't often seen abroad as the 800-pound gorilla. Least of all our municipal governments. But that's exactly how
Mick Darch describes the massive influence that Ottawa and its economic development agency has had on Tucson, Ariz. Darch spoke there recently at an international conference on high tech "clusters." As special advisor to the Ottawa Economic Development Agency, he was also there along with deputy Ottawa mayor Rick Chiarelli to announce a high-tech pact between Ottawa and Tucson. Under the agreement, the two similarly sized cities will forge links between their like clusters of life sciences, software development, and especially optical technologies, otherwise known as photonics.
"Tucson found us," said Darch. "Tucson already had a core of photonics companies but it was still mostly dependent on tourism. So their officials went looking for examples of how to transition their economy to a high-tech base."
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