Lafont tapped for Global Strategies Council

Vic Lafont, executive director of the South Louisiana Economic Council, the Thibodaux-based economic development organization, has been appointed to a seat on the Global Strategies Council, which promotes trade between southern industry and international markets.

The council is part of the Southern Growth Policies Board, a nonprofit association that – working through three other councils handling technology, workforce and community issues individually – promotes economic development in the south.

SLEC represents Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. Mary and Assumption parishes.

Lafont said he has experience in the global economy because of his work with SLEC.

“Local companies have wanted to get into global markets,” he said.

He was encouraged to seek appointment to the council by SGPB Director Jim Clinton.

“I’ve been able to attend board meetings for the past four or five years,” Lafont said. “I was picked because the council will be addressing international labor issues and how that affects global markets.”

Each of the board’s four councils usually has 26 members, two persons from each of the 13 southern states represented by the board. Some states occasionally appoint only one member, however.

The board is composed of the 13 governors. The governors appoint all members of the councils, and serve as chairpersons of each council as well.

Cedric Grant, of the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development, is the other representative of Louisiana on the council.

Gov. Kathleen Blanco appointed Grant and Lafont. The length of the appointment is indefinite.

Lafont said he will concentrate on immigrant labor issues while on the council. More specifically, he will address the labor shortage currently afflicting the Tri-parish area.

“One of my primary goals through this appointment is to affect how immigration policy is formulated for the benefit of our industries,” Lafont said in a news release.

“We have an exhausted labor force in the Houma-Thibodaux area,” he said. “We’re tapped out. We’re second to none, but we need more skilled workers, machinists, truck drivers and nurses.”

Lafont said he is hoping local companies will be able to provide infrastructure support for oilfields being exploited in the former Soviet state of Kazakhstan, and the nearby Caspian Sea.

“When they struck oil in the Caspian Sea, there’s a service industry that surrounds it,” he said.

“We have a knowledge base that is of value,” he said. “We’ve been there, done that.”

In the news release, Lafont explained, “Sound globalization policies are critical to our future and I am pleased to have the opportunity to contribute to the formation of new directions for our region, our state and for the 13 states that make up the Southern Growth Policies Board.”