Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell made a major announcement to the National Governors Association (NGA) just this past Monday.

For the next year, according to new NGA chair Rendell, the National Governors Association's main focus will be repairing and strengthening the country's crumbling infrastructure. Hundreds of billions to trillions of dollars are needed for long-neglected upgrades and repairs.

In his announcement, Rendell noted a recent allocation of $650 million to Pennsylvania's alternative energy sector, with a strong note of hope that other governors would follow his lead.

Rendell stated, "Without adequate infrastructure to quickly and safely move goods and people, our economy and traffic will stop dead in its tracks. We will have a much tougher job competing in the world markets."

Infrastructure Spending Surges in Emerging Markets

Merrill Lynch recently raised its global infrastructure spending estimate by 80% to $2.25 trillion annually for emerging markets. And as we know, emerging markets are the places to invest these days. They have billions upon billions of dollars swimming around to make advances in business and finance… and to build up their cities.

It’s now the world of emerging markets, and we’re living in it. Merrill Lynch calls infrastructure spending a long-term solution to inflation. It’s a direct result of decades of underinvestment in power, transportation and water. Seventy percent of the infrastructure spending will be concentrated in China, the Middle East and Russia.

These are the original estimates for infrastructure building in select countries, and the extra value that’s been tagged on to the bill:

It’s not hard to see that the world is in the midst of a building boom. And that’s good news for infrastructure companies.

Building Up the World With $30 Trillion

Everything from office buildings to hospitals to schools are being built up in emerging countries…

According to Bob Frick of Kiplinger, “In the next 20 years, the tab to build and maintain roads and bridges, and to create and maintain systems that deliver electricity, water, sanitation and telecom services, will swell to $30 trillion. Rich countries must upgrade decades-old infrastructure, and developing nations must build it to make their economies competitive.”

Over $6.5 trillion of that will be used in the United States and Canada. That means the rest is being used to build up, or rebuild, the rest of the world.

Growing wealth is invested in building up countries. Currently, African cities are seeing a strong boom in construction due to economic growth and a positive outlook for their future place in the world.

Urban Migration

Electrical wiring is often overlooked as an infrastructure play. But consider this: There are over 750 miles of electrical wiring in the Chrysler Building, the world’s tallest brick building.

Now think of all of the buildings going up in a new city like Dubai, which is currently using 16% of the world’s cranes for its construction. Going into 2009, $3 billion is on the plate right now in building plans.

Or take Shanghai as another example. The city already has 4,000 skyscrapers, almost double that of New York City. And by the end of the decade it’ll have 1,000 more built. China itself is building 2 billion square meters of construction every year, making for a rapid rural-to-urban migration.

All those new buildings will certainly need cement and steel. But they’ll also need electrical products like lighting and switches.

Electrifying the World… and Your Portfolio

This is good news for the leading electrical product company in America that caters to over 110,000 customers globally. With strong earnings growth and plans to continue branching into markets like Asia, it’s near the top of the list for major money managers, because it operates in a stable -- and growing -- global industry.

I just released this month’s Safe Haven Investor recommendation on the company providing electrical products and services to construction companies around the world. With so much construction going on globally, this value investment is a no-brainer.

Chunks of that $30 trillion being spent globally to erect bigger and better buildings will go into this month’s Safe Haven Investor stock’s pockets as it supplies its 110,000 global customers with light switches, wires and electrical boxes!

On top of that, this stock is trading for less than $35 per share today… with a price-to-earnings ratio of only 8!

I urge you to learn more about August’s infrastructure play in Safe Haven Investor today, before you lose your chance to get in at a low price.

Ann Sosnowski
Editor, Safe Haven Investor