After working to further economic understanding in America’s heartland, MU’s Mark Drabenstott will take his expertise to an international level as chairman of the Territorial Development Policy Committee in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (The OECD uses the British spelling for “organization.”)
Drabenstott, elected to the chair in December, will lead the committee’s biannual meeting this summer. The OECD consists of 30 member countries and promotes free trade and economic growth around the world. Drabenstott said he hopes to improve analysis of regional economics in order to further global economic growth, and said his work at the international level will be “in harmony” with his work as the director of MU’s Center for Regional Competitiveness.
Drabenstott takes a “bottom-up” view of global economies that stresses the importance of economic development at the regional level.
“We are entering a global economic Olympics,” Drabenstott
said. “Every region has to figure out which event gives them the best chance at the gold.”
Thomas Johnson, a faculty member of the Truman School of Public Affairs and expert on rural economic development, said that Drabenstott’s work forms an important link with the global economy and will “put Missouri in a more direct contact with the rest of the world.”
Johnson said a knowledge-based economy will help the Midwest compete in the production of commodities on a global scale and that MU expects long-term benefits from its investment in the field of regional development.
“From the perspective of MU, the university has taken a bold step,” Johnson said. “It’s an entrepreneurial move.”
Drabenstott said he hopes to represent the Midwest while working to help every area around the globe.
“It’s a win-win around the globe, for Missouri and for the United States,” he said.