Investment Profile

Entrepreneurs looking to fast track their enterprise to the commercialization and expansion levels will find the resources they need in abundance in eastern Tennessee — in the Knoxville-Oak Ridge Innovation Valley, specifically. The Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), managed by (UT)-Battelle LLC (a joint venture of the University of Tennessee and Battelle Memorial Institute).

And companies adore the state’s infrastructure for talent, R&D and expertise. Overlay a map of the Empire State’s vast reserves of higher education and institutional firepower with a map of corporate and industrial R&D, and chances are you’ll see two things: a legacy of innovation, and an interwoven network ripe with opportunities for more.

Columbus is changing from a steady performer to one of the country’s most dynamic metro areas. The Columbus Region has been called the test market of the United States because of its diverse economic profile — part university town, a national logistics hub, a center of retail brands such as the Limited Brands and Wendy’s, and the second home of Chase bank, which happens to be the region’s largest employer.

A governor with an ambitious agenda is proving that Iowans are even more resilient than he thought. Battling recession, floods and misperceptions, Gov. Terry Branstad is ahead of schedule in reaching his four main goals.

‘We speak business out here.’ In Fulton County, a community of 43,280 people west of Toledo, manufacturing companies are experiencing robust growth thanks to a home-grown but globally competitive work force.

Malaysia’s capital of Kuala Lumpur has a key role to play in the successful implementation of the 10th Malaysia Plan, the government’s blueprint for making the country an effective competitor for global capital investment in high-income industry sectors. The Plan identifies 12 National Key Economic Areas (NKEAs) with the potential to produce high incomes and generate sustainable competitiveness on a global scale.

The Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) is leading new efforts to facilitate foreign direct investment into key industry sectors in order to meet objectives set forth in the Economic Transformation Programme by 2020. The plan stresses increased investment in several sectors that will help transform Malaysia into a higher-income economy complete with the infrastructure and labor supply necessary to sustain the target sectors into the future.

From automotive manufacturing to the chemicals and life-sciences sectors, few factors are more important to global competitiveness than speed to market. In fact, for some industrial companies, the presence of a superior transportation and logistics network is the most critical component of all. In Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, logistics is at the heart of the state’s business growth strategy — and a world-class transportation network is the driver.

Today Ak-Chin Indian Community and business leaders are reclaiming land. But their eyes are on the bright path to the future, as they seek to foster enterprise instead of entitlement.

Greater Fort Lauderdale alters perceptions of business executives around the world. Payoff comes in headquarters, plants and other expansions including a British tobacco company.

A recent investment by Spirit AeroSystems at the North Carolina Global TransPark in Kinston is paving the way for a local aerospace cluster that could soon number in the thousands of workers. No other location had GTP’s blend of logistics and work-force attributes, says a Spirit executive central to the location decision.

Workforce development programs make San Bernardino County a manufacturing magnet in Southern California. When California Steel Industries’ Brett Guge explains why his company invested nearly a billion dollars into operations in San Bernardino County, he attributes his firm’s strategic direction to one primary factor.

The Southwest Louisiana and Acadiana region supplies energy to the world and skilled workers for expanding companies. Take the elements that are critical to community prosperity — water, transportation, energy, industrial know-how, and willing and able workers — and combine them into a strategy for economic success … that is exactly what Southwest Louisiana and Acadiana did.

Located in beautiful Izmir, one of the principal cities on the Mediterranean Sea and Turkey's primary port for exports, ESBAS is home to global powerhouses like Hugo Boss, Fokker Elmo, Pratt & Whitney, PFW, Delphi Diesel, Gates, Mahle, Delphi Packard, Eldor Electronics, Aero and Cummins Inc. Together the companies located within ESBAS generate more than US$5 billion annually in manufacturing and trade.

Centuries of innovation cement Thuringia as leader in advanced manufacturing. Bosch Solar Energy AG has more than tripled the size of its work force here in only three years.

Mars Chocolate North America likes to say that “Snickers really satisfies.” The 100-year-old confectionary company may soon be saying that “Topeka really satisfies Mars.”
The city of Topeka, Kan., received a sweet treat of its own when Mars announced a $250-million, 200-job plant investment in the capital community.

German engineering is well known and highly regarded in the extremely competitive world of automotive manufacturing.

Executives at small and mid-sized companies assigned the task of opening a Shanghai office or facility might find that assignment daunting if it’s the company’s first foray into the Chinese market.

North Carolina Biotechnology: From Dream to Reality

Few locations in China can claim as many benefits to industrial investors as the Changzhou National Hi-Tech District (CND) established in November 1992 on the northern side of the city of Changzhou.

The biggest breakthrough in fighting the global battle against diabetes didn’t come in a lab in San Diego, Boston or one of the other well-known U.S. life-science clusters.

In Florida and the Carolinas, Progress Energy’s network ties various groups together to get deals done.

“They always seem to be there when we need them,” says Jim E. Mentesti, president of the Great River Economic Development Foundation (GREDF) in Quincy and Adams County, Ill., when asked about his community’s partnership with Ameren Corporation.

Expanding firms find access to capital, knowledge workers and pro-growth incentives in Greater Philadelphia.