Lynchburg receives visit by Virginia Secretary of Commerce and Trade
Jim Cheng includes stop at Liberty University
Virginia Secretary of Commerce and Trade and member of Governor McDonnell’s cabinet Jim Cheng will be visiting Lynchburg, Va., and speaking to a group of business students at Liberty University on Wednesday, Oct. 19.
Cheng is coming to Lynchburg at the request of Delegate T. Scott Garrett, M.D., according to Sara Owen, legislative aide to Garrett.
“The purpose of his visit is to share with our community about what is happening in the agencies he oversees in Richmond and also for him to hear from our community about the opportunities and challenges we face in the areas of commerce and trade,” Owen said. “His day begins with a breakfast with several key business leaders. He will then keynote a ‘regional summit’ held at the city’s I.T. Building on Young Place at 10 a.m.”
After that, the Helms School of Government and Liberty School of Business is co-hosting Cheng to address students from these schools from 11:30 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. in the Helms School Suite, SLAB 128.
According to Dean of the School of Business Scott Hicks, they have not traditionally had a lot of speakers come, but it is something that they are trying to increase the frequency of this semester.
“This term, through clubs and classes, we can basically average a speaker a week coming through the school, which we’re excited about, because we’re very big on applied academics,” Hicks said. “It’s one thing for a student to learn a theory, it’s another thing for them to be able to get practical application alongside that theory. It will add more value to them as they go to market, which is where our greatest concern is.”
Hicks said that Cheng will probably discuss with the Liberty students topics such as international trade, tourism and how the region can retain businesses, with a focus on Region 2000.
“Virginia’s Region 2000 Partnership is an interwoven network of organizations with a centralized vision to provide regional development leadership within the 2,000 square miles that surround Lynchburg, Va.,” the Region 2000 website states. “We provide a single point of contact to the public and private sector for regional planning services, economic development, marketing and workforce training.”
According to Hicks, it is important for Liberty to become more involved, a catalyst even, in Region 2000.
“One of the big initiatives that we have in the School of Business is internships,” Hicks said. “We have 59 internships. I’d say 75 percent of them are paid internships and that’s coming directly from companies in Region 2000.”
Owen said that Cheng’s visit to Lynchburg will commence with a trip to the Center for Advance Engineering and Research facility “to view the science and technology housed there.”