The second day on Tuesday of the Detroit, Michigan summit seeking an economic strategy offered more comments on the critical importance of the industrial sector in view of the global crisis.

'One of the lessons we have learned from the crisis is that you cannot create wealth in an economy simply by spinning things around and around,' said Jayson Myers, president of the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters Association.

'You create wealth by building things people want to buy.' Those comments were echoed by others.

'Prosperity comes from building, creating and producing,' said Chip McClure, CEO of auto parts maker ArvinMeritor.

'Can we sustain commerce based on financial engineering over real engineering? Simple answer, no way.'

Mr McClure said the US needs 'a pro-industry climate with policies on trade, taxes, energy, health care, and education that make it competitive for US and foreign manufacturers to build here. An economic downturn is not the time to walk away from 12 million American manufacturing jobs. It's the time to build.'

John Engler, president of National Association of Manufacturers, said the government 'needs to consider the long-term impact that increasing costs, adding new regulations, raising taxes and expanding litigation will have on America's future economic competitiveness.'

Craig Giffi, vice chairman at the consultancy Deloitte LLC and author of a book on manufacturing, said Americans must begin to realise that manufacturing is not a dirty word.

'Most Americans still cling to a belief that manufacturing is not safe, that pay is not good .... that the jobs are dangerous.'

The summit, a three-day gathering aimed at defining a US economic strategy, heard several calls for a formalised US 'industrial policy' to help compete with countries, notably in Asia, that offer direct aid to key firms. -- AFP