Colin Powell back in Idaho

Colin Powell arrives in Nampa en route to Otter's Star ranch

Jon Meyerjmeyer@idahopress.com

Tuesday, October 16th, 2007

NAMPA— Colin Powell landed at the Nampa Airport Monday afternoon to meet briefly with a delegation including Gov. Butch Otter, first lady Lori Otter and members of the Korean trade sector as the first Korea-Pacific U.S. Joint Economic Conference to be held in Idaho kicks off.

The former secretary of state's visit was short-lived as he was only expected to spend several hours in the Treasure Valley and was to fly into Seoul, Korea today. He arrived in Nampa under an invitation by his friend Jin Roy Ryu, Chairman and CEO of the Poongsan Corporation — a Korean nonferrous metal conglomerate — and was expected to give a short speech to the members of the conference before a meal at Otter's Star ranch.

Powell chose not to meet with media before leaving the airport.

"With all the warmth Colin Powell has felt from Korea, we're glad to have him here," Otter said in a short interview before Powell arrived. "General Powell is the American dream, being born in the Bronx in not exactly the best of conditions ... working his way through four administrations ... we have respect for him."

Otter expressed his hopes for the conference to increase the relations between Idaho and Korea, already the state's fifth largest international trade partner. "It's great, hopefully the next couple days will make it even better," he said.

The fifth annual trade conference comes in close proximity to the governor's planned 11-day trade mission to China, slated to begin Oct. 27. The trade between China and Idaho is already a multi-billion dollar industry that Otter "hopes to increase substantially.""

We're having a very international month. The governor is very pro-trade and looks forward to these types of events," said Bibiana Nertney, communications director for the Idaho Department of Commerce, which will also be represented at the conference.

Hee-Beom Lee, chairman and CEO of the Korea International Trade Association, said that he looked forward to the opportunities that this year's conference would present for the two countries to expand beyond the agricultural business they share and build on their relations in the technology and energy industries."I think this conference will grow our relationship," Lee said. "Idaho is transforming from potato chip to computer chip and we hope to grow the relationship in biotechnology, renewable energy (and) agriculture."

In addition to the chance for Idaho to bring new and diverse technologies to Korea, Powell's associate Jin Roy Ryu commented on the possibilities to decrease the price of existing products in Korea that are much cheaper to import from the U.S.