In this light, I think there is one major program that is imperative to ensure the steady growth of our economy and the integrity of our national defense.

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Tombini said that as a result of the slower growth, now well underway, the national economy will not grow four percent this year as targeted by the Finance Ministry, but more like 2.5 percent.

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The negotiations come as governments seek new ways to rekindle growth without adding to already inflated national debts while central banks have pumped trillions of dollars into the global economy.

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Its economy is set to hit 6% growth this year, well above the national average of 2-2.5%, and its administration has been spared the turmoil of transformation.

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From 2013 its sales will start adding an average of about five percentage points a year to the national growth rate up to 2020, when its impact on the economy will peak.

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The only exception is the third-ranked San Francisco- Oakland-Fremont metropolitan statistical area, which has logged 21% growth in this sector since 2001, while expanding the proportion of such jobs in the local economy to nearly twice the national average.

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