Rhode Island is sleepwalking through economic history. The growth in world trade is transforming regional economies all over the United States — but not here. Thanks to NIMBY-minded opponents of a container port at Quonset Point, Rhode Island has literally missed the boat, and is left with a stagnant economy and weak job growth.

Rhode Island would do well to heed a new study by Martin Associates. In 2006, port-sector businesses across the country generated 8.4 million jobs and added nearly $2 trillion to the national economy. If Rhode Island had aggressively pursued this business, developing (in some cases just redeveloping) its port opportunities in Providence, East Providence, Quonset, Newport, Portsmouth and elsewhere, it would be expanding its economy and creating well-paying jobs already. Many port experts in such places as Charleston and Savannah are mystified at Rhode Island’s touch of suicidal ideation when it comes to the economy, but they are happy, of course, not to have competition from here.

What makes port development particularly attractive, the report makes clear, is the multiplier effect of the business in America. The half-million or so jobs held by terminal operators, longshoremen, freight forwarders, steamship agents, ship pilots, tug and towboat operators, chandlers, warehousemen, as well as those working in the dredging, marine construction, ship-repair and trucking and railroad industries, were supported by another 630,000 jobs in such other sectors as food, housing, transportation, apparel, medical and entertainment industries. And ports encourage manufacturing near them, which pays much higher wages than does the “hospitality industry” and many others.

The report, moreover, spells out the significant increase in port activity since Martin’s 2000 study — which is to say the Ocean State has lost precious time.

What the state needs on the economic-development front is forceful leadership. Right now, even Providence’s waterfront on Allens Avenue is in danger of being gobbled up for high-priced condos, bars and restaurants — development that would do little to create good long-term jobs and economic growth. A few rich people and a lot of people on minimum wage.

Rhode Island enjoyed strong economic leadership during the administrations of Bruce Sundlun, who pushed through the airport expansion, and Governor Almond, who had the right instincts in fighting hard for a port, in the face of well-heeled locals. The Carcieri administration, by contrast, has often seemed content with catch-phrases and slogans about economic development.

During the last three years of the Carcieri administration, the governor and other state leaders should begin to push for the high-paying jobs and growth that ports are bringing to other parts of the country — places where local leaders are shrewd enough to exploit their region’s natural advantages.