High-Tech Gains Clout In Region

High-technology is becoming a mainstay for the Northwest, providing steady economic growth despite the lengthy Boeing strike and uncertain prospects for the timber and fishing industries, private economists say.

The region “remains a magnet for people and activity in the late 20th century - a condition not likely to change as we head for the millenium,” says “The 1996 Portrait.” It is the seventh annual economic profile of the region by Paul Sommers, executive director of the Northwest Policy Center at the University of Washington, and U.S. Bancorp senior vice president and economist John Mitchell.

Land-use questions and restoration of Northwest salmon runs are key policy issues, they said.

“Today, hundreds of millions of dollars are being spent to preserve, enhance and in some cases resuscitate runs that are at the edge of extinction,” the report said. “These efforts to save salmon runs are symbolic of the region’s struggle to maintain its quality of life.”

The region’s attractions will fuel long-term growth in travel and tourism, the report says.

Overall, it predicts rapid growth in Oregon, Utah and Nevada, moderate growth for Washington and Idaho, and slower growth in Alaska, Montana and northern California.

“Everybody’s a little bit surprised at how strong Seattle’s been” in 1994 and 1995, Sommer said.

Growth in high-tech and other sectors more than offset Boeing’s 1992 massive cutbacks and layoffs, they said.

The Bellevue-Redmond-Bothell corridor has become a virtual “European-style industrial district,” booming around Microsoft Corp. New Matsushita and Intel factories in Pierce County, meanwhile, could anchor a similar corridor at the south end of Puget Sound.

High-tech manufacturing is growing in Idaho as well the report said.