Sovicka outlines AmCham Advocacy aims
What follows is a transcript of a conversation between newly elected president Pavel Sovicka and executive director Weston Stacey on the Amcham's advocacy priorities, and the principles behind them.
Weston: So I hear you are the new president of AmCham…
Pavel: I am. It is great to have a chance to build on what Milan Slapak and others have done, and, when I think of all the people and companies who are involved, a little bit intimidating to know that when I speak, I represent all of their aims and efforts.
Weston: Well, you have been a big part of the building for the last few years. And we are expecting that your activities to change how the government thinks and acts about one of the country’s most precious resources- land- is going to be a major feature of your presidency.
Pavel: It will, but not only because it is important for real estate developers like myself. As you know from our internal discussion, we want the government and business to get back to the essential elements of any strategy. That is knowing what assets you have, knowing the limits on how you use them, setting some sort of clear goal that aligns the interests of as many people as close as possible, and then utilizing those assets to achieve that goal.
Land is one of the basic assets we have. The current system for using land does not try to align interests. There is no goal. Therefore we cannot align interests. If we cannot define our goals, we will not be able to compete for advanced technology; we will not be able to achieve affordable housing; we will not be able to protect our environment or create attractive communities if we cannot define our goals, redesign the incentives for government officials, and rebuild our planning, zoning and permitting processes to achieve what we want to achieve.
Weston: What is the first step?
Pavel: People always think the law is the first step. The law is a tool to achieve a desired policy. We need to agree on the policy. We cannot agree on policy until we agree on goals that align our interests. In the case of land use, we probably need to agree on goals and then change how the public sector operates to align their interests with those goals.
Weston: What do you mean?
Pavel: We need to agree what our goals are. How do we want to define the best use of our land? Should we set some goals for increasing the contributions to GDP of all land zoned for commercial use? Do we want to set some sort of goal of affordability for every meter of land zoned for residential use? Should we set some sort of greenhouse gas emission targets for properties? We have a hundred different strategies and plans and we still do not have three or four clear and measurable goals for the second most important economic asset (after people) a country possesses.
Weston: I agree. Politicians tend to forget that a law or a decree only sets a bunch of rules that create a bunch of different reactions from businesses, the public sector and private citizens. The sum of all those reactions is the policy. So you have to have a goal. Then you create some rules and some incentives for people to react to those rules how you want them to react.
Pavel: Correct. In land use, the public sector has incentives that work against the economic development of the country. They are not responsible for creating jobs for people in their community. They are not responsible for creating public revenues for their community. If they do create economic development, they do generate any public revenue for doing so.
Weston: When the city and state planner from Finland visited us a couple of years ago, he mentioned that the Finnish state negotiates a contract with regions in which the state agrees to provide certain funding if a region promises to build a certain number of homes or commits to other types of economic development. It seems to me that a regional system of such incentives might solve many of the problems facing land use.
Pavel: Exactly. Define the goals. Align incentives with goals. Then let regions decide how to organize themselves. The ones that organize themselves well will attract investment and people. The ones that do not will have to answer to their voters.
Weston: This is an approach that works for more than just land use. It also could be applied to how we fund research. In fact, if the goal is to be an innovative economy, we could define what the measurable goals are, and then apply those across all economic sectors.
Pavel: That is what we as AmCham should have as our overall aim as we work with government over the next four years: define goals, align incentives, and implement.