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♪ this is "NJ Biz Beat" with Raven Santana.

Raven: Hello, I'm raven Santana.

thanks for joining me on "NJ Biz Beat."

New Jersey's businesses and universities are growing their international connections.

governor Murphy recently visited east Asia making deals to bolster New Jersey's economic foot print.

global ex ports total $46 billion in 2022, more than 15,000 businesses contributed to those ex ports with 92% of them being small or medium sized.

New Jersey's Tom export partner is Canada with $10 million goods exported in 2022 and our Tom export is chemicals.

$11 million in 2022. these numbers are September to rise as New Jersey grows its current partnerships and fans new ones.

I sat down with Tim Sullivan, C.E.O.

of the New Jersey economic development authority to discuss how the garden state's economy will benefit.

Tim, why visit the Asia Pacific region?

Tim: New Jersey has long standing ties to all three places in Japan, south Korea and Taiwan and huge Japanese and Taiwan ease community in our statement so the point of this trip was really to reintroduce New Jersey and all the economic benefits we've brought to the region and plant the seeds for future generations or future iterations of cross-country and transnational partnerships.

Raven: You spoke about these partnerships and as you just mentioned, New Jersey has lots with foreign countries, some more fruitful than others, so why is it important for New Jersey to have these partnerships and what does the state really get out of them?

Tim: Put yourselves in the shoes of a decision make never a foreign country.

they look at a map of the United States and say thee -- they're see the big United States and it's on us to point out the difference between New Jersey and other places.

particularly under governor Murphy's little.

this is a story he's told numerous times.

we have a combination of talent, location and the right values that align with what a lot of companies are seeking so making that different ration and being on the ground telling that story in person is irreplaceable.

you can do a million doesments or media spots or whatever but on the ground is incredibly important.

Raven: Tell me one of the goals you have once in offers is up and running.

it's September to open in 2024 and they're now trying to gather staff.

Tim: The choose New Jersey office, we partner with the E.D.A.

but it's going to be sort of the first point of contact for whether it's a Taiwan ease or anyone in the Asia Pacific region thinking about New Jersey.

they first need to be thinking about the U.S. or north America.

we saw this on the trip.

there's lots of household names in all three places and lots of those companies already have big presences.

lg or Samsung or Panasonic or some of the others out of Japan.

we met a companies that haven't become household names yet so they want to come to the states, plant a flag and grow their brand.

we want to see who's ready to make a big presence in the states, in particularly New Jersey and somebody who's going to keep communications going.

this is a Mohammed that includes New Jersey really likes, governor Murphy really likes and I certainly really likes.

Raven: Sounds like a win-win.

when we think about strengthen relationships, is it just business or is there also tapping into some politics as a way to gain some support?

Tim: I don't know if it's politics as much as geopolitics.

the world is a scary place.

being in Seoul or Taipei with neighbors that are not part of the U.S. sort of defense alliances is incredibly important.

even if it's symbolic or just demonstrating that the multilateral ties of places like New Jersey and a country, nation like south Korea or Japan or a place like Taiwan to demonstrate that nations that sort of adhere to democratic values and the rules-based order, we stand together.

whether against totalitarian threats or terrorism, those ties are probably more important than ever.

raven: You recently wrote an op-ed where you outlined the state's economic growth.

who you do you sustain that agreement?

Tim: New Jersey's economy is really strong.

not to say we don't have challenges and real opportunities that need addressing.

but about 200,000 new jobs since governor Murphy took offers.

growing private sector jocks, the fastest in the northeast.

we have a great story to tell.

how do you keep it going?

continue to execute on a lot of the fundamental strategies governor Murphy has been working on.

things like affordability and creating a strong business climate.

investing in things like education, higher Ed.

a place to be a global leader.

film industry.

for examplea -- Pharma, making sure we're staying strong there.

continuing those investments and doing so in an equitable way I think is how we keep the momentum going.

Raven: Tim, thank you so much for joining mess on -- me on "NJ Biz Beat,"I appreciate it.

the governor went to east Asia because it's a critical economic partner for the garden state.

New Jersey's economic rhythm with south Korea totals $5 billion annually and its partnerships with Taiwan generate $4 billion in revenue each year.

choose New Jersey is deepening these relationships by setting up officesaround the world.

in Germany, Ireland, India and in 2024, the just announced office in Taiwan will open.

they fifth resources for global companies looking to expand to New Jersey.

I statue down with Wesley Matthews, president and C.E.O.

of choose New Jersey to learn more.

when most people think about jersey, they don't always think about international business, right?

>> That's fair.

Raven: But you do.

>> I do.

Raven: So tell me that little bit about choose New Jersey's first ever, right, location, the Asia Pacific, and kind of like why this is so important.

>> Well, thanks for having me on.

really appreciate the chance to be here and to speak a little bit about New Jersey and our international presence over the last few years.

Asia Pacific has been a trading partner of New Jersey's for decades and in fact, some of those economies in east Asia or some of New Jersey's most important trade and economic investors.

some have invested in the New Jersey economy over decade so for us it made a lot of sense to actually plant a flag in east Asia saying New Jersey is here.

we have a permanent presence now in east Asia for countries like Taiwan, mainland, Japan.

instead of trying to reach us out in Newark, to first go to our office locally and then build out those relationships.

we find it's much easier to facilitate business in the region and then move it to New Jersey eventually.

raven: We know the office is in Taiwan.

why did you choose to locate there and that presence?

Wesley: It's been about two years in the making.

we looked at possibilities of sites in various Kunce around east Asia.

Taiwan made a lot of sense to us.

one, it's a very dynamic city.

Taipei city.

Taiwan as an island state marries kind of New Jersey's economic blueprint in many ways.

they're focused on technologies of the future, Bello technology, transportation and logistics, a lot of it works really well with the New Jersey economy.

not just today but over decades and also for us to be able to stache the offers, we needed speakers of several languages.

in east Asia, Madden ridge is important, Korean, Japanese, all important languages so we thought it was the best fit for us to be able to find the staff, both from a language perspective and able to respect New Jersey and actually for a base to then launch from two other facility of Asia, we thought Taiwan was idea.

Raven: You brought up staff.

first of all, when is this Officer set to open and then when you think about strafe, how many people already looking to have there and are there any names that will be directing that office?

Wesley: It will start with a small footprint.

we haven't identified how much people.

we'll obviously have a director of that offers.

we have four offices overseas right now.

they're all led by a director and then some level of staff.

again, depending on the language skills and the sector skills for the economic sectors we're focused on, we'll determine how many strafe we need.

raven: In 2024?

Wesley: Early 2024, yeah.

Raven: What does New Jersey get out of this?

Wesley: We do a lot of work into identifying who are our Tom investors from overseas.

we've identified where the trade throws and investment throws come from and then we take that and marry that with New Jersey's economic blueprint.

so something the governor laid out in 2018, kind of our gentle in terms of economic growth for the future and then we marry knows.

so historical trade and investment knows, where we're looking to grow the economy and then we say what countries or regions of the world match both of those criteria?

for us, east Asia, very obvious choice.

other parts of the world, India, Israel, where we have our other offices, all made sense as we build out our international presence overseas and I got to say, New Jersey, we have always been an international state.

I only think of New Jersey in some ways in that global sense so we have started this over the last six years, this kind of reimagining our international foot print but we do this because we're in competition with 49 over states in America, all flying their flags you're seats these dayses and all trying to attack business so we want to make sure that we lead, that countries and companies in the sectors that match our skills and what we want to grow our economy and need to grow our economy, that they hear from us directly and that's why it's important more than ever for us to be in those regions.

Raven: It's not just business, right?

there's higher education involved.

Wesley: You bet.

Raven: Tell me about that and why that is also critical.

Wesley: New Jersey's value proposition in a few words is talent and location and then focus on innovation.

but talent drives the whole gentle for New Jersey wherever we go.

wherever we were in east Asia -- we were in east Asia with the governor on the largest mission you're seas.

we had seven institutions of higher education with us.

the most we've ever had with us but we've also had some level of representation from our university network.

that's really important because if we're an economy driven by having a talent pipeline it's important for companies in those regions to know that one, New Jersey is, has the most talented workforce in the nation and we have a line pipeline of talent.

that doesn't just start at university level.

it actually starts in kindergarten.

we have the number one education system in the country.

we know this but increasingly we find that a lot of our international partners don't know that.

so part of the objective is to reintroduce New Jersey and our economic momentum over these last few years to our international partners.

Raven: Wesley, thank you so much for joining me.

a lot to look forward to.

Wesley: Thank you.

raven: International tourism is another Houston part of the garden state economy.

international visitors contributed more than $1 billion to our chill in 2022. a 200% increase over 2021 but still about half of the levels seen in 2019 prior to the pandemic.

international visitors make up about 3.5% of tourists and close to 8% say they visit our state for businesses.

many businesses seek to generate more revenue and product.

the governor announced a new partnership.

according to the governor, the deal will open a new line of communication between industry leaders and researchers.

our universities are also growing their global partnerships.

during his trip to east Asia, governor Murphy linked a number of garden state universities with overseas partners.

princeton struck a deal and J.I.T.

will partner with a university to research data science and supply chain management and Rutgers signed a deal with tie pie for engi engineering training.

I spoke to Audra Kelly about how global partners help students and the university.

so you and the president accompanied governor Murphy on an eight-day economic mission to Asia.

tell me a little bit about how you're expanding international partnerships when it comes to kean university.

Audrey: It was such an honor and privilege to join governor Murphy and his team on this trim.

it was a bold initiative by the governor and on the part of choose New Jersey.

they can be incredible partners for our state, both economically and -- it was an exhausting experience.

both exhausting and delightful.

why it's good for a university like kean, we have a long history of already working in east Asia academically.

we have a unique partnership in an area of China.

our job was to expand that into areas as much as south Korea and Japan and also to meet with some of our existing partners in those countries and we were lucky to sign a new partnership with Japan with a new university.

raven: I know you've gone many times but what was different about this trip and kind of the goal of partnership over in the Asia region?

Audrey: I think what was different about this trip was the group that the governor's office and choose New Jersey put together to take the trip.

we had government, corporate, several nonfrosts, some new interpret neural business leaders on the trip and A.C. damea.

-- A.C. damea.

it was the first time we've been able to be in a group like that from kean about how we can work together to build on these partnerships in international environment, so how can partnering with the university in south Korea bring in a corporate research lab here in New Jersey and work together?

I think that's the type of approach that we haven't been a part of before and that we're really excited to embrace going forward.

we've made lots of connections with leaders here in New Jersey on the corporate side.

leaders looking to tap into our talent, our student body.

really to partner into developing academic programs that will from sill at a time graduates that can go right into their crease companies.

raven: When we think about the opportunities and benefits for students what does that look like with a program like this?

Audrey: One of the universities that we signed a partnership with this south Korea, we have already had, I think, 18 of our students through a federal grant that was earned will you a partnership with a university traveled to south Korea last summer, spent the summer doing a research project in south Korea, immersing themselves in the culture.

I believe the research project was related to environmental concerns and then bringing that information, that experience and that sort of worldly knowledge back to their studies here in New Jersey and I think all of these partnerships, when you come to the student level are geared to doing just that.

it's not just studying abroad.

it's academic learning, it's cultural learning and it's really learning how to operate in an international environment that I think will set these students apart when they graduate because they're going to go too work in a career and have these experiences as really informing them.

Raven: Have you seen an uptick in students wanting to study abroad in Asia given the partnership that you have and, two, what kind of majors or what types of students are you seeing that are interested in studying abroad?

Audrey: I would say in the past 10 years here at kean we have had a strong focus on building our study abroad programs.

China is the unique one because I think there are very few University that can provide the opportunities we can.

we have a full-scale campus there.

it is all English speaking but overall we have immersive programs in Italy and other programs.

through the decade, I think we're seeing interest, particularly in east Asia grow.

certainly the pandemic shut down things worldwide but now it's really starting to rebuild.

we just had 18 students lining up to go to south Korea this summer.

we haven't done something like that before.

the interest is there on their part.

it's up to us to facilitate that and make the right connections and a trip like which one empowers to us do that.

there are certainly opportunities specific to a -- a lot of our biology students have gone on one studying climate change in Italy, a lot of our students study architecture and in south Korea, some additional biological studies and our partnership with Japan is related to economics.

with that said, any student who really had a good academic record.

this is rigorous, anyone with a commitment to study can certainly thrive in this.

most are first-generation students.

many never dreamt they would get on a plane and cross the globe and study in Japan or south Korea for the same prices going here at Kean.

we ensure that it's affordable.

these are opportunities for a whole new generation of students.

raven: Audrey, thank you so much for joining me.

one of the most successful international program is the architecture and design program.

run by dean David moany in charge of the cap pus and the campus in China.

I sp spoke to him and he said wt his students gain from international collaboration is invaluable.

David: Students today are going to be global professionals.

doing work all around the globe.

a real sense of business drives the working eitheros.

so for students to come in, be part of that university, make friends and colleagues with their Chinese counterparts, start to take out and carry out project, all of nice things work together, I think, for setting them up to be meaningful professionals.

raven: Before we leave you, here's a look at the top business headlines this week.

an announcement that takes the wind out of the sails of New Jersey's clean project economy.

orsted said it's stopping the two wind projects.

this comes after they had announced a delay in the project back in August.

governor Murphy said the decision is "outrages" and calls into question orsted's competence.

some are calling on the governor to sue for fraud.

gongman gottheimer is pairing up with the mayer to take on New York's congested pricing plan.

they're tasked with setting the congestion tolls.

they plan on charging up to $23 entering New York state.

the lawsuit contends the federal high way administration failed to conduct a thorough environmental review.

the Murphy administration already sued the organization in July.

council members say new zoning changes will strengthen neighborhoods that have suffered over the years.

the changes will also increase the amount of fortunateliable housing in the city.

also allowing bars and restaurants and others to open in spaces previously reserved for only housing.

critics argue this strips the public of their voice around future development.

they also say outside developers stand to benefit the motives.

the six-week strike by the automobile workers union came to an end this weekend after the union announced a tentative deal with general moment.

ford motor company and salantis struck deals with the union last week.

from 25% raises with costs of living adjustment with some veteran employees seeing races of up to 38%.

the plan involves new investments and profit sharing options.

that does it for us this week.

remember to subscribe to our New Jersey spotlight news YouTube channel.

next week we explore the difficult process of starting your own business, including the top challenges entrepreneurs face and how to create a proper business plan.

I'm Raven Santana.

thanks for watching and we'll see you next weekend.

>> Support for "NJ Biz Beat" with Raven Santana provided by NJMEP, a partner to New Jersey's manufacturing industry, focused on tract activity, performance and strategic development.

more on NJMEP.org.

♪