Outsourcing generates heated political debate, but exporting deserves equal time. That's because it's a key plus of globalization, particularly with the dollar so low against other currencies. For Colorado, exporting is a significant part of our economy and critical to restoring our economic health.

Last year, Colorado companies exported $6.7 billion in manufactured goods, agricultural products, and minerals, a 9% increase over 2003. Although agriculture used to be our major exporter, today computer-related and electronic products comprise 59% of the total, according to the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade. Our trading patterns have shifted, also, from a heavy dependence on European sales to a broader set of trading partners. While Canada remains our largest international market, Germany and Britain now trail Japan, Korea, and Malaysia in importing Colorado goods.

Given the economic stagnation in Europe, we are fortunate to be broadening our export markets to more robust parts of the world. As I've traveled this year in Asia, the Middle East, and Europe, I've been increasingly aware of the contrasting energy levels in different economies. Europe's growth rate is only slightly above 1%, with many countries suffering unemployment rates over 10%. Not a very fertile environment for growing our export markets.

Travel in Europe and you can't find a shop open between noon and 3 p.m. While the midday nap is nice, it certainly doesn't improve productivity nor create more jobs. Europeans are far more reluctant than Americans (or Chinese or Indians or Turks, for that matter) to pick up their families and move to better job markets. A middle-aged Polish worker, unemployed for years, told me he wouldn't move to a city with better job opportunities. "My grandmother died in this house," he said. "My mother died in this house, and I will die in this house." Economies don't grow where the labor force is static and stale. Nor do markets for our exports.

Younger workers often have different dreams. Much of Central Europe's youthful labor force is cheaper and more mobile than in Western Europe, so these countries are attracting foreign investment. Many companies are shifting their European manufacturing operations to Central European countries because they don't require Western Europe's luxurious job benefits and lay-off provisions. As their disposable income grows, these economies will become Colorado's export markets of the future.

Check out China and Turkey, two other countries I've visited this year. Their workers are eager to go wherever the jobs are, whether it's moving to the booming, overcrowded coastal cities in China or, in the case of Turkey, doing the menial jobs in Europe. They're willing to work late into the night to care for their families. Shops are open as long as there's a potential buyer nearby, with eager merchants always ready to display their goods. Too often in Western European cities, the most energetic activity is in the street markets, largely unregulated except when the occasional police patrol ambles by and almost entirely populated by poor immigrants willing to do whatever it takes to make a buck.

As we rebuild Colorado's economy, we will continue to find our export markets shifting to countries with more robust economic growth and with people willing to work hard to build better lives for themselves, just as generations of immigrants have done in America. While that increases opportunities for us, it also creates competition for our products and services, forcing us to be more energetic ourselves, to improve our own productivity and quality.

Fortunately, Colorado's new trading partners are demanding electronic goods that make up the largest part of our exports. Filling that demand requires us to continue to innovate, be flexible, and move quickly. That's just what Western Europe is struggling to do and just what Asia and Central Europe are doing much better. That's why our trading partners have changed and why our exports will continue shifting to developing countries with eager workforces. To continue to grow, we need to be as nimble in the future as they are.