As much as state officials tout Tennessee's historical roots in advanced manufacturing, Fischer claims that the real Tennessee "trump card" for luring industry is infrastructure. Site readiness, advanced telecommunications, an ample power supply and the South's best transportation network are all vital components of the state's economic development strategy.
      "We are trying not to rest on laurels of past successes," Fischer says. "Rather, we've continued to invest in infrastructure."
      Those investments include a new $43 million TennesSeed Fund to provide early-stage venture capital to technology companies; an extensive GIS analysis of all available industrial sites in Tennessee; the wiring of all 95 counties for ISDN and high-speed Internet access; the wiring of all public schools statewide; the Tennessee Industrial Infrastructure Improvement Program; $30 million on work-force development; the Tennessee Manufacturing Extension program; and continued investments in new power plants.
      Those investments are paying off. In terms of power supply and cost, Tennessee remains one of the best bargains in the country. "In Tennessee, we were on line 99.999 percent of the time last year at extremely competitive rates," says Fischer. "We are competitive with anyone anywhere in the country. We are bringing on line new power sources every single year, and we have been doing so for many years."
      Wages, too, are rising for state residents. The jobs created by manufacturers last year averaged $2.50 more per hour than the average state hourly wage, according to Fischer. "Our average family income and standard of living are rising," he says. "We no longer sell ourselves as a low-wage state."
      Companies needing distribution/ warehouse space also like the transportation infrastructure they find in Tennessee. With six major highways (Interstates 24, 40, 55, 65, 75 and 81) crisscrossing the state, it's no wonder that Tennessee has become the busiest logistics hub in North America.
      Memphis in West Tennessee -- located within a day's delivery of 76 percent of U.S. markets -- now bills itself as "America's Distribution Center," and with good reason. The metro area of 1.1 million people is home to the world headquarters of Federal Express, a hub for Northwest Airlines, the world's largest cargo airport, five Class I intermodal railroads and the nation's fourth-busiest inland river port. Recent large-scale logistics investments in the River City include facilities for Barnes & Noble, Williams-Sonoma and Hewlett-Packard.
      But Fischer says the state won't stop there. With the $1.4 billion Spallation Neutron Project in Oak Ridge and the world's largest collection of wind tunnels in Middle Tennessee, Fischer says the state is poised to enter a new era of technology-intensive manufacturing.
      Only this time the goal won't be to subdue Japan. It will be to keep Japanese yen, European euros and American dollars flowing into Tennessee at a record clip.