SLOVAKIA — This week, Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb traveled to Slovakia to kick off his 25th trade mission. There, he took part in a ceremony alongside Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Slovak National Uprising.
”To have been in that moment with them, with the prime minister, who, if you’ll recall, back in May had an assassination attempt on his life...it was quite a historical moment," Gov. Holcomb said.
According to Gov. Holcomb, both the Slovakian military and the Indiana National Guard have had a 30-year long relationship, with the Slovakian military frequenting Camp Atterbury in Edinburgh, Indiana.
”We came here to deepen our strategy to bring defense industry to Europe, and for European defense industry to reciprocate and perhaps come to the United States and come to Camp Atterbury and use our facilities to highlight their weapons systems...to see if we can potentially use those systems in our defense industry to put those things in the pipe, in the hands of the war fighters, in order to be able to achieve overmatch with our adversaries,” Major General R. Dale Lyles, the 59th Adjutant General of Indiana, said.
From Slovakia, Gov. Holcomb will head to Italy to foster economic development opportunities with motorsports industry leaders like Dallara—an Italian racecar manufacturer with a significant presence in Speedway, Ind.
"We want to continue to help them grow in Indiana, and so there is no better place to do it," Gov. Holcomb said. ”So much innovation comes off the track and the test track that leads into, quite frankly, defense, aerospace, aviation."
He said discussions will take place in a few days at Dallara's headquarters about skilling up K-12 students into a workforce that can meet the demands of the 21st century.
”The companies that we’re dealing with recognize how important workforce development initiatives are," Gov. Holcomb said.
The governor’s visits to Slovakia and Italy mark his 25th trade mission. While the governor said it’s possible he could take part in more trade missions before his term ends, he didn’t specify where those could take place.
”It matters more today than ever before in our state’s history,” Gov. Holcomb said. ”When you look at what we’ve been able to over the course of the last seven, eight years, going on eight years, we’re at a record high foreign direct investment coming into Indiana.”
According to the governor, $20 billion of the state’s $28 billion in committed capital investment last year came from foreign investors.