(Washington, DC) - U.S. Representative Jason Altmire (PA-4) announced today that he will host two upcoming regional summits to examine new ideas for small business growth and for building a comparative advantage for western Pennsylvania's health care and high tech industries.

"Western Pennsylvania has a highly educated and dedicated workforce, a vibrant small business community, and some of the nation's top research and medical facilities," said Congressman Altmire.  "We are uniquely positioned to leverage these strengths into innovation-based opportunities that could make Pittsburgh and western Pennsylvania a major competitor in the global marketplace.  These two summits will bring together some of the region's top entrepreneurs and policy makers to help forge a plan to create jobs and prosperity for all western Pennsylvanians."

Congressman Altmire will co-host the first summit with Congressman Tim Ryan (OH-17) to foster greater regional cooperation and integration between western Pennsylvania and northeast Ohio.  The event on October 1 at Youngstown State University will bring together business, academic and foundation leaders from the Pittsburgh-Youngstown-Akron-Cleveland area to discuss ways to create a "tech belt" that will create jobs and foster economic growth in advanced services.   The forum was called by the Congressmen after two bio-tech consortiums, BioEnterprise of Cleveland and the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse announced in April that they would be working together to attract more venture capital to the region.  Congressman Altmire and Congressman Ryan believe that this model can be used across industries and will facilitate a discussion on how best to harness the region's resources and create a formal plan of action.

The second summit, scheduled for October 8 at LaRoche College in McCandless, will bring together a distinguished panel of local business leaders, academics and policy makers to discuss how to create and expand economic opportunity throughout western Pennsylvania.  At the summit, local leaders will focus on new ideas for small business growth, preparing western Pennsylvania's workforce to compete in a global economy and building a comparative advantage for the region through advances in health care and technology.

"We must do more to create economic opportunity in western Pennsylvania and to prepare our current and future workforce for competition in the global marketplace," said Congressman Altmire.  "At these two summits, we will consider bold new ideas to create and expand economic opportunity and security in western Pennsylvania and across the region."

For more information about Congressman Altmire's economic forums, please contact his district office at (724) 378-0928.