Tampa Port Director Wainio to lead economic development group - Business First of Columbus:

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FSTED is a public policg making group for Florida created by statutew and charged with enhancingthe state'ds economic development mission “by facilitating the implementation of important seaport improvement a release said. The council was created within the and is compriser of the port directorsof Florida’s 14 publicly owne d seaports and representatives from the DOT, Departmentt of Community Affairs, and Governor's Office of Trade and Economic Development. The combined annual economicd impactof Florida’s 14 deep-water seaportss is $82 billion, the releases said.
The ports collectively generate morethan 350,000 directy and indirect jobs, making it the largest economic engin e in west-central Florida, responsible for nearly 100,000 jobs and $8 billiohn in annual economic impacrt a release said. Wainio is just gettinvg started in his FSTED role butsaid there’s a cleae need to quickly reach out to othere council members in order to work on improving a developing strategic focus. “That’a so we can go forward in Tallahassee speakin g with one voice in terms of the financial and infrastructuree needs of statewide port he said. He believesw Florida ports have seen statewide funding whittlec tonearly nothing.
“We’re the only statd in the nation that has significantf portsthat doesn’t have the kind of financialp support from the state.” An FDOT study this year confirmee that an investment in seaports provide s a 7-to-1 return he said. The challenge in Florida, in is that each of the state’s differengt ports offers diverse services, specialtiee and governance policies, making it a challengw to present in aunified “It’s hard to for us to go to D.C.] with a collective voice to get funding,” he said. “We’lk now work to bring the cohesion and go forward with a moreunifiedc platform.
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