STATE ECONOMY Local executive part of Ohio trade mission to Asia

Japanese companies employ about 70,000 people in Ohio.
By JEFF ORTEGA
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT .
COLUMBUS -- The president of a Mahoning Valley manufacturing company is among the business executives and state leaders who will accompany Gov. Bob Taft on a trade mission to Japan and Taiwan later this month.
George Ogletree, president and chief executive officer of Treemen Industries of Boardman, is among the several business and government officials on the trade mission Sept. 24 to Oct. 2.
Ogletree couldn't immediately be reached to comment. His office said Ogletree was returning to the Youngstown area from Columbus late Tuesday.
Treemen Industries, a multiprocess manufacturing company, serves automotive and commercial lighting markets, according to the company's Web site.
This will be Taft's second trip to Japan as governor. Taft visited Japan in February 2000 on a trade mission.
Part of the focus of the trip will be boosting Japan's position as Ohio's largest single-country source of direct foreign investment, state officials said.
Japan-Ohio relationship
Japanese companies have more than 300 facilities, employing 70,000 people, in Ohio. Japan is Ohio's fourth largest export market.
According to state officials, the four previous trade missions -- to Japan, South America, Germany and Mexico -- produced $473 million in projected new business and investment and 1,395 jobs for Ohio companies.
Also among the trade mission participants are three officials from Kent State University -- President Carol Cartwright; John L. West, KSU's vice president of research and a former director of KSU's Liquid Crystal Institute; and L.C. Chien, a professor and senior researcher at Kent State.