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Old-timers like to say that Florida's economy is like a sturdy wooden stool, resting on four stout legs: agriculture, construction, tourism and retirees. While those remain important economic props, an exciting array of emerging industries is reshaping our state -- and our economy. By the turn of the century, tens of thousands of Floridians will be working in businesses that today are just beginning to emerge. Here's a look at five that are among the most important.
LASERS PROPEL ORLANDO INTO THE NEXT CENTURY
They can blast gall stones to bits, play compact discs and unclog arteries, and one day soon they may replace the dentist's drill, project images onto high-definition television screens and weld human tissue with only a trace of a scar.
Besides providing these breakthroughs of profound economic impact, lasers are propelling Orlando to prominence as one of the nation's hottest spots for the fast-growing laser/electro-optics (LEO) industry. Nationally, Orlando ranks behind only the Sificon Valley and Boston's Route 128 as a center for laser activity, and it may close the gap on those two areas in the 1990s. William Schwartz, founder of two laser firms and recognized as the father of Florida's laser industry, predicts that the state's laser business will double in size by the year 2000 to 21,000 employees and $2.3 billion in revenues.
Schwartz bases his forecast on the rapidly expanding market for lasers and the broadening of laser companies' product lines. Since its beginning 33 years ago, when Martin Marietta established its tactical missile division in Orlando, Florida's laser industry has grown from one company making lasers for the military to more than 60 companies on the cutting edge of laser development for science, medicine and industry, as well as the military. Most of the growth has come from companies spinning off from one another. Of the 30 companies in Orlando, 20 are spinoffs. Seven sprouted from Martin Marietta alone.
The vigorous growth spurred the Laser Institute of America, an organization that educates on lasers and their applications, to relocate to Orlando from Toledo last year. "I used to live in Boston and work on Route 128," says Peter Baker, the institute's executive director. "I see the same thing happening here that took place up there."
Baker...