Governor George Pataki will deliver the keynote address at The Business Council's Annual Dinner Monday, May 14, at the Empire State Plaza in Albany.

After dinner, Howard Fineman, chief political correspondent for Newsweek, will also speak.

The Annual Dinner is a fund-raising event for The Public Policy Institute of New York State, the research affiliate of The Business Council. It is preceded each year by The Institute's annual Economic Issues Forum.

Each year, the Annual Dinner brings together close to 1,000 top business and legislative leaders each year. Dinner festivities will begin with a reception at 5:15 p.m. at the convention center. The dinner program is expected to begin at 6:30 p.m. The Governor is scheduled to speak before dinner is served.

Issues Forum: The annual Economic Issues Forum this year will focus on how university and corporate research and development can drive New York's economy in the 21st century.

U.S. Rep. Sherwood L. Boehlert, chairman of the House Committee on Science, is scheduled to deliver the keynote address. In addition, a panel of experts and practitioners in R&D will discuss the role of university- and business-based R&D in economic development.

For more than a year, The Business Council has been discussing the role of R&D in economic growth with research leaders from universities, corporate R&D labs, and government research institutions, with emphasis on how strategic state investments in R&D might promote new economic growth.

In their budget proposals this year, Governor Pataki, Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver have all proposed significant state investments in R&D, and The Business Council itself has suggested a five-year, $1 billion state investment in R&D in three strategic areas in which New York already has existing research strengths: micro/nanotechnology, photonics and information technology, and genomics and biotechnology.

The Issues Forum will take place from 3-5 p.m. Monday, May 14, at Hearing Room C of the Legislative Office Building at the Empire State Plaza, with registration beginning at 2 p.m.

There is still time to buy Inner Circle tables for the dinner. For information contact Ellen Muir at 1-800/358-1202.