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SACRAMENTO - 05/18/06 - Rod Ballance, executive director of the Global Trade Center of the Inland Empire (GTCIE), has been named a 2006 Small Business Advocate of the Year by the California Chamber of Commerce.

Ballance was one of seven small business executives honored with the award "in recognition of their advocacy efforts on behalf of small businesses" and was presented the honor at a luncheon before more than 700 attendees at the California Chamber's recent Business Legislative Summit in Sacramento.

Lou Monville, chairman of the Board, and Cindy Roth, president/chief executive officer of the Greater Riverside Chambers of Commerce, both nominated Ballance, telling the Chamber that he "has demonstrated an unyielding commitment to small business and to his community."

Ballance, they said, "has taken a leadership role that is both proactive and motivating. He plays an ever increasing role as the voice of business by advocating public policy changes that stimulate and sustain business growth."

As executive director of the GTCIE, Ballance "puts his more than 30 years of international business experience to work helping local businesses penetrate new international markets and attracting international companies to establish bases of operation in the Inland Empire," according to a recent interview published in the Chamber's newsletter Alert.

The GTCIE was founded as a public-private partnership in 1999 on the premise that globalization should be used to local businesses' advantage, rather than being feared. The center provides information and services such as market research and planning, product development from an international perspective and bridging cultural differences, it reported.

"Forty-nine percent of containers that pass through the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach pass through Riverside County on their way to the Midwest. That traffic has created infrastructure challenges that have to be dealt with along with the growth in trade," Ballance told the publication.

Ballance "is optimistic about the way the state has begun to address its infrastructure requirements, but the need to improve the state's transportation system reinforces the connection between global and local trade, a sound economy and job creation, and the state's legislative and regulatory climate."

There are so many things, he said, "that really affect the flow of commerce that are tied to regulation."

Insisting that advocacy is a vital part of being successful and attaining commercial longevity, Ballance told the Alert that, "If a business is not involved in politics, it will have difficulty staying in business. You have to be aware of what your elected representatives are doing. Many businesses are clueless, and suddenly a law is passed that affects them. If they had been aware, they possibly could have affected that outcome."

California, he said, "is blessed with many different industry clusters," including the high-tech industry, the agricultural community and the service sector. "Unlike other states that don't have the cornucopia of manufacturing and other opportunities, the business engine here keeps going."

Business, said Ballance, "will continue to grow as long as certain sectors don't look at business as the cash cow to fund other sectors. It's important to remember that businesses create jobs. When people have jobs, they spend money, then cities benefit and spend money on their local communities, and the quality of life improves. That's where a strong focus on business is very important."

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