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Economic Opportunities

Potential in Hawaiʻi

HawaiʻI’s emerging role in international trade, technology, and sustainable development.

Hawaiʻi has yet to reach its potential as a key site for international cultural and political interchange. With its proximity, major educational, multicultural assets and birth state of U.S. President Barack Obama, new opportunities are emerging to increase Hawaiʻi’s role in Asian‐Pacific affairs. For example, Hawaiʻi has launched a major initiative to attract more international students to the State, focusing on greater China. In addition, Hawaiʻi has established itself as a major business conference center between North America and Asia.

Hawaiʻi’s lifestyle and cultural resources have been successfully combined by Hawaiʻi firms to create innovative and unique products to increase exports from the state.

Ocean access, active geology, clear night skies and two of the top five viewing sites in the world, and other environmental strengths cited earlier, all support additional development of scientific research and development of commercial technologies based on those assets. As Hawaiʻi’s defense system evolves into more technology oriented activity, opportunities exist for Hawaiʻi companies to help serve scientific and technological research needs. This market can potentially leverage the development and maturation of Hawaiʻi’s technology companies into competitive players in the wider global tech markets.

The resources based on sun, ocean, wind and geothermal assets can support substantial development alternate and clean energy sources for the state’s economy. Many of these sources need further technology development and Hawaiʻi is well positioned with its natural and institutional assets to conduct that research and development.

Volcanic soil and year‐round growing environment can facilitate the production of many valuable and unique specialty crops and provide the basis for continued scientific crop re‐search. Major market assets such as the large tourism base, military establishment and stock for bio fuels can help support renewed efforts in diversified agriculture.

Hawaiʻi has benefited for decades from the defense establishment’s standard procurement needs such as construction, operating supplies, management services and agricultural products. Still there are still many goods and service procurements that go to outside companies that Hawaiʻi’s companies could potentially fulfill with better information, understanding of procurement processes and collaboration among Hawaiʻi firms.

The film and television industry has been an important contributor to Hawaiʻi’s economy for decades. More recently, entertainment technology have begun to merge film, computer animation, computer game programming and digital effects into new products that serve as platforms for delivery well beyond the movie theater and TV screen.

One of the spin-offs of economic diversification into technology, science, health, entertainment and other emerging industry is the potential for developing newer and more targeted, niche tourism markets such as eco/agritourism, health tourism and cultural tourism.