Davis Meets and Lobbies Britain’s Blair

Gov. Gray Davis, on his second international trade mission since assuming office last year, met with Prime Minister Tony Blair on Monday to urge Britain’s Royal Air Force to buy Boeing C-17 aircraft and to invite the British leader to California.

Emerging from 10 Downing St. after their 45-minute meeting, Davis said he and the prime minister also discussed ways in which scientists from California and Britain might pool their resources in the fields of pharmaceuticals and high-tech research.

“I lobbied him a little bit, asked him to look favorably on the ongoing discussions between Boeing and the [British air force] for the potential sale of C-17s for use here in England,” Davis said. “And I am looking forward to the possibility of the prime minister coming to California.”

He said the primary purpose of his 14-day trip to Britain, Ireland, Greece and the Middle East, however, is to seek new investment in California and promote California exports.

“We are [the size of] a nation-state, the seventh or eighth largest economy in the world, depending on the currency exchange on any given day. . . . It is important to be over here. We have a wonderful story to tell. It has been a while since a governor of California has been in Great Britain,” Davis said.

The governor is accompanied by his wife, dozens of staff and security personnel, prominent business leaders and major contributors to his election campaign. The entourage of donors has led to charges that the trip is a payback--access to the governor for contributions.

Private citizens traveling with Davis are paying their own expenses, according to his staff.

While in London, Davis will open the California Information Technology Trade Show and California House, the new offices for both the state’s Trade and Commerce Agency and for the University of California.

By sharing quarters, UC and the trade agency hope they can encourage cooperation between the private sector and university research centers.

“We hope to combine the research that UC does in science, biotechnology and high technology, and try to commercialize that research in the UK and the rest of Europe,” said Christopher Campana, deputy secretary of the trade agency.

“We also hope the [trade agency] will link up with the hundreds of UC alumni working in the UK, working for all different organizations in manufacturing, aerospace, technology, and match them up with California companies. This is a vehicle to generate ideas,” he said.

John Marcum, administrator of UC’s Education Abroad Program, said his office used to have a “Dickensian loft over a bagel shop.” He said he hopes the new partnership and better address on St. James Place will provide new internship possibilities for students and fund-raising opportunities for UC, while facilitating joint research activities with British public and private institutions.

“It is a new venture and we’ll see where it goes,” Marcum said, adding that if it is successful it could be replicated in Latin American and Asian countries.

Davis will travel from London to Dublin on Friday to meet with Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, tour an Irish high school and visit the European headquarters of a California high-tech company.

“The largest employer in Ireland is Intel. And virtually every Silicon Valley company has a major facility in Ireland because they have a wonderful education system. They’ve wired up most of the schools and they have a science-based curriculum in what amounts to a high school in California terms,” he said.

From Ireland, Davis will travel to Edinburgh, Scotland, where he plans to fulfill a “boyhood dream”--playing golf at the famous Old Course at St. Andrews--before a dinner with the mayor of Edinburgh and Scottish business leaders.