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Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge said businesses will have to partner with the government to protect the country from terrorist attacks aimed at harming the nation's economic might.

"We cannot forget Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida have targeted our economy for destruction," Ridge said in a speech at the Duquesne Club, Downtown. "And if you don't believe me, let me quote him: 'We must hit the United States with everything available. We must concentrate on the destruction of the American economy.'"

Ridge made his comments Tuesday night during the National Symposium on Competitiveness and Security, an event co-hosted by Carnegie Mellon University and the Council on Competitiveness, a nonpartisan think tank.

It was the first anniversary of Ridge's swearing in to the newly created Cabinet-level post of director for the Office of Homeland Security, an appointment that put the former Pennsylvania governor in charge of coordinating anti-terrorism efforts among 46 federal agencies.

The symposium continues today with an all-day session at the Omni William Penn Hotel, Downtown. Participants will include U.S. Commerce Secretary Don Evans, White House economics adviser Glenn Hubbard and Michigan Gov. John Engler.

"If we choose not to invest in security, we may find the bill coming our way anyway," Ridge stressed in his speech.

He noted that the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks caused $50 billion in insured damages, billions of dollars more in uninsured losses and the loss of 100,000 jobs.

Despite such devastation, nine out of 10 executives surveyed by the Council on Competitiveness do not believe their company is a potential target for a terrorist attack, Ridge said. Half of those 230 corporate executives surveyed had not made significant changes to security policies or actions, he added.

Ridge warned that such thinking is misguided since the private sector controls 90 percent of the nation's infrastructure, such as telecommunications lines.

"There are long-term financial advantages to improving security, but many businesses do not believe that," Ridge said.

"We put more effort into making supermarket checkout lines more efficient than in making our security more effective. Obviously, 9/11 suggested we ought to reorient our priorities."

Ridge touted a joint effort by the U.S. government and the private sector to streamline inspections while bolstering security at the Canadian border as the type of joint effort that will improve the nation's economy while protecting it from terrorists.

If businesses don't work with the government on other similar initiatives, the private sector risks rising costs in the marketplace. Those businesses that refuse to invest in security may see their insurance rates soar or their sales sag as consumers penalize their stance, he said.

Ridge likened the effort to improve the nation's economic security to the push to improve the environment that occurred during the 1970s and '80s. Businesses may have to invest as much as 5 or 6 percent of their corporate earnings to ensure they have proper security, he added.

"I would hope that I may know more about what's going on nationwide than anybody else in this country of 285 million people, and I want you to know America is at work together, protecting its families and its communities and its assets," Ridge said.

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