Nasco

Nasco Outlook
* 1994 NASCO is founded
* 85 members Public and private sector in the three North American nations
* 11 U.S. States
* 5 Canadian Provinces
* 7 Mexican States
* 22 UNIVERSITIES
* 26 members on NASCO Board of Directors
* 8 executive officers in leadership
* 8 inland port members
* 6 annual conferences rotated between the three countries

TheNASCO perspective

At NASCO it is our intention to be a voice, and a body of action, for solving the critical problems our North American continent, and our individual countries, are facing.

Time is of the essence. Either we take significant action and invest in our future, or we can expect to decline and lose BIG in the new, emerging global marketplace. North America has to do better. Eachcountry needs an individual plan for transportation infrastructure, security of the supply chain, environmental efforts and logistics workforce development. It is also necessary for the three countries to work together and share information, as we share economies, land borders and an environment.

The U.S., Mexico and Canada are forever bound together as the North American continent. Ourtransportation infrastructure, as well, will forever be linked. We have to take care of our countries individually, but also work as a team to compete effectively in a global marketplace. Logistics is the process of planning, implementing, and controlling the efficient, effective flow and storage of goods, services, and related information from point of origin to point of consumption for the purpose ofconforming to customer requirements.

So, transportation plays a VITAL role in your everyday life and has a direct impact on your finances with every purchase you make. It is important to know that many of our continent’s high-end products, where 40% of the profit is earned domestically, are developed with critical inputs from abroad that form part of the core product. That means “domestic”products are produced with “foreign” parts.

Today, goods are produced GLOBALLY - with input from multiple countries. Very few items are truly “domestic” products. Academic studies prove the single-best investment by government at any level is in education, which is the cultivation of the single most-valuable asset on earth: the human resource. The second-best investment by government is intransportation infrastructure.

At NASCO we feel it is our responsibility to keep raising awareness and advocating for the advancement of funding for transportation infrastructure projects, environmentally sustainable planning and regulations for the transportation industry, the safe, secure and efficient movement of goods, and development of strong logistics workforce training programs.

With thisOutlook 2011, we want to share what NASCO is doing at this critical time for our continent – to take responsibility and to have accountability for our actions. In the past, we have sometimes been a target for those less educated on the issues, but so be it. When you are leading an effort, you are sometimes a target. Someone has to get moving, we have to start trying to SOLVE problems instead of justtalking about them and pointing fingers and blaming everyone else.

NASCO is uniquely positioned to have the perspective of the public and private sectors governing our organization and setting our agenda, and to have strong relationships with the key government agencies and private stakeholders in the transportation and logistics industries that have the day to day understanding of how thingsreally work.

Transportation Security & Efficiency

Through NASCO’s advocacy, we strongly encourage each of the North American nations to develop national multimodal freight strategic plans and to coordinate them along international borders. We urge each of the countries to enact transportation legislation that provides dedicated funding for critical transportation infrastructure and freight...