by Governor Mike Leavitt

Today we stand on the edge of two millennia, looking back on one and straining to see as far into the next as time's light extends. We've welcomed the dawn of 2000. We are the lucky ones who drew this date with destiny – and with it the assignment to match expectations of great hope with actions worthy of this place and this moment. The possibilities are endless. I watched on New Year's Eve as millennium celebrations unfolded in each time zone across the globe –fireworks from Beijing to Paris; the prayers offered by entire islands in the South Pacific; the exuberance of America, from Times Square to the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a sight never before seen – the entire Earth celebrating a single event in a similar way.

Now the corner has been turned. A new century is here, and with it a world transition to an era of unprecedented reach and connectivity. At the last turn of the century, America was still a nation of dirt roads and kerosene lamps. The paper clip and cable car were newly patented. The first trans-Atlantic telegraph had been sent. One day, 100 years ago, my great-grandfather, George Okerlund, waited at a port in Europe, hoping a ship from America carried a letter from his family in Utah. Communication was an arduous journey by horse, boat and train. Fast-forward a century. I was in Europe on a trade mission. I got up in the middle of the night to check the Jazz playoff game on the Internet. A familiar voice interrupted. "You've got mail."

The e-mail was from my 8-year-old son, Westin. "Dear Dad. I just stapled my thumb. Love, Westin." I could picture Westin in my study, stapling drawings into a scrapbook. A staple in the thumb is world news for someone, so he reached for a tool now commonplace: the Internet. My son's message traveled the same distance as my great-grandfather's letters. Instead of three months, it took three seconds.

This is our world now, where an 8-year-old can reach across continents for instantaneous sympathy and comfort from a father. It is not about distance and boundaries anymore. It is about networks, bandwidth and knowledge and the convergence of computing and telecommunications. It is a combination that eclipses all other technology that preceded it.

There are two other trends - major economic trends - intersecting at the same time: the integration of the United States into the global economy and the continued deregulation of telecommunications and public utilities.

The combination of the digital revolution, globalization and deregulation add up to a complete restructuring of the U.S economy. It is an economy driven by ideas, knowledge and productivity. It is a time when small, nimble, new companies capture entire markets and mature tradition bound old ones lose them. It features enterprises that partner on one product and compete on others. We are in an era when mass production is giving way to mass customization. In such a time only the best survive because margins are measured by the penny and service by the second.

The world is changing on Internet time. Our responsibility as governors is to create a new Vision for the 21st Century that positions our state to flourish, to be adaptable to the challenges and the opportunities of the global economy, and to create new seamless models of governance. And we must do it all fast!!

Yesterday I released a report entitled "State Strategies for the New Economy." Copies are at your places. It can also be viewed online at www.nga.org . This is an umbrella report for a series of 10 that will follow. The papers will analyze what the new economy means for state governments, and how states can meet and seize its challenges.

I would like to thank the governors that are participating in the Technology Task Force that is developing this series of papers.*

This first meeting of the National Governor's Association in the 21st century is historic. In 1789 the United States Senate met for the first time in New York. In 1908 Teddy Roosevelt first brought the governors together. They have met every year since. In the 224-year history Senate and the governors have never met together. Tuesday, we will have a historic meeting with the Senate to discuss how we can strengthen our federal-state partnership. This is intended to become an annual meeting of the governors and the U.S. Senate.

As we stand on the edge of two millennia, states can steer a visionary course that spells success for our citizens in the new economy. We must be forward-looking and we must be adaptable. If we accept change we will survive, if we ignore it we will fall behind, if we lead it we will prosper.

*Task force governors:
Chair: Michael O. Leavitt, Utah
Vice chair: Thomas R. Carper, Delaware
Don Siegelman, Alabama
Gray Davis, California
George H. Ryan, Illinois
Jeanne Shaheen, New Hampshire
Christine T. Whitman, New Jersey
Bob Taft, Ohio