Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster will be in Jacksonville, Fla., this weekend to attend a meeting with the U.S. Conference of Mayors aimed at bolstering exports through the nation's seaports over the next decade.

Villaraigosa's trip coincides with a report set for release today that predicts the value of merchandise exported through the neighboring ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach will grow 63.1 percent to more than $96.9 billion by 2020.

"If you're serious about creating jobs, you have to be serious about expanding exports," said Villaraigosa, who will head to Florida on Saturday.

"Ninety-five percent of the world's consumers are outside of the United States," said

Villaraigosa, who is president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. "To put people back to work, we need to invest in our roads, bridges, ports, and rail systems."

Cities that primarily deal with Asia - including Los Angeles and Long Beach - are best positioned to increase the export of machinery, transportation and chemical goods made in the United States, according to "U.S. Metro Economies: Exports in the Next Decade," a 46-page report prepared by IHS Global Insight, an economic analysis firm based in Englewood, Colo.

For that to happen, seaports must be equipped with the proper labor force, transportation lines and manufacturing facilities, according to the study. That statement comes as cities such as Los Angeles and Long Beach continue to request federal funds for a series of infrastructure projects.

"We are a reflection of what's happening in the nation, so I believe it's possible to reach those export goals if we get the money and cooperation needed to improve our facilities," said Jim MacLellan, director of trade development for the Port of Los Angeles.

Locally, that means spending hundreds of millions of dollars to fortify or rebuild the Vincent Thomas, Gerald Desmond and Commodore Schuyler Heim bridges, which link the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to local freeways.

The Gerald Desmond Bridge in Long Beach will soon be demolished and replaced with a new, nearly $1billion cable-supported span with three traffic lanes in each direction. Work on the new bridge is expected to begin early next year.

Work is already under way for the $1.2 billion Middle Harbor redevelopment project, which will fuse two old shipping terminals into a new 345-acre facility by 2019.

"With the infrastructure improvements ... the Port of Long Beach will be ready to handle the country's growing exports," said Foster, who was already in Florida on Thursday.

In Los Angeles, the China Shipping and TraPac terminals are undergoing massive expansion projects set for completion in the next few years.

Improvements also need to be made to the Long Beach (710) Freeway, including a possible lane dedicated solely to truck traffic, along with grade separations to stifle noise from trains hauling cargo through Riverside County, MacLellan said.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors requested the study two years after President Barack Obama launched his National Export Initiative, which calls for doubling exports through the nation's seaports by 2015.

National export growth is expected to average 8 percent annually through 2020, while imports will increase 4.8 percent, according to the report by his Global Insight.

"This will chip away at the U.S. trade deficit and open up more opportunities for local firms to sell goods globally," the study stated.

The Port of Los Angeles has led the way in growing exports by setting a national record last year with more than 2.1million cargo containers shipped to overseas markets.

The significant jump was partially attributed to the port's Trade Connect program, which calls for reaching out to small- and medium-size business owners and showing them how to ship their goods abroad.

The local initiative was shared with the U.S. Department of Commerce and forwarded on to ports in Oakland and Jacksonville, Fla., MacLellan said.

"I think we have some hot areas in California for exports because we're still the largest manufacturing center in the U.S.," MacLellan said. "But we have to reach out to those small companies and encourage them to send their goods overseas while allaying their fears about getting paid."