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Read May 2012 IssueEvery picture tells a story. Every year corporations and communities come together to paint pictures of project success. And every spring Site Selection salutes the best corporate facility projects in the world, judged by investment, high-value and high-volume job creation, creativity in negotiations and incentives, regional economic impact, competition and speed to market.
Read Cover StoryTop-performing economic development groups apply lessons learned during the downturn. When the global financial markets reached meltdown status in the fall of 2008, very few envisioned a time when a handful of U.S. cities would reach unprecedented heights of economic prosperity.
Read Cover StoryBy claiming first place in Site Selection’s annual ranking of state competitiveness, Virginia proved that second place merely means there’s room for improvement. The Commonwealth lost no ground and gained what little there was to gain from its runner-up finish in 2010 with a best-in-class finish for economic development success in 2011.
Read Cover StorySite Selection is pleased to present its fourth annual Best to Invest rankings of nations and metro areas for investment-attraction activity in 2011. The national Investment Promotion Agencies recognized here were particularly successful in 2010 at attracting capital investment projects — both expansions of existing facilities and new projects — from investors at home and abroad.
Read Cover StoryVolkswagen’s global head of factory planning explains how the company’s Tennessee site facilitated LEED-Platinum certification. In late March Volkswagen announced it would add 800 more jobs to the payroll at its new plant in Chattanooga, Tenn.
Steve Ostrenga believes it’s time for some fairness in solar manufacturing. Ostrenga is CEO of Milwaukee-
In laboratories around the world, researchers are racing to find cures that will drive business. Driven by the implications of patent loss, rising research and development costs and declining return on investment, downward pricing pressure and other factors, the lief sciences industry is regrouping to increase productivity and business performance.
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.
Québec-based IT executives at multinational computer services giants attribute the success and expansion of their enterprises to being located in Québec. An increasingly bilingual and skilled work force, higher education resources, proximity to Europe and the U.S. Northeast and a business climate that encourages capital investment are some of the assets they identify as drivers of their ability to compete. More specifically, they compete successfully with other subsidiaries of their parent companies worldwide for capital investment, or they complement those subsidiaries as no other operation can, they maintain.
Angola has still to catch up with being oil rich and at peace with itself. A decade has passed since its long civil war ended, and in many ways it has made remarkable progress. Yet much remains to be done – from building infrastructure to reviving agriculture and raising much of its population out of poverty.
An expanded list of Best to Invest European cities adds representative metros of Austria, Italy and Spain on the Western side and Estonia, Turkey and the Slovak Republic in the East (see charts). These metros captured enough new and expanded facility investments in 2011, and were deemed superior to other metros in their regions in the LocationSelector.com analysis from IC Associates outlined on page 28, to be recognized here for consideration when European locations are in play.
China and India metros dominate this year’s Best to Invest ranking of Asia-Pacific cities — determined by Site Selection’s New Plant Database, LocationSelector.com analysis from Amsterdam-based IC Associates and a survey of global site consultants. But there’s plenty of activity elsewhere in the region, particularly in Sydney, Australia, and Seoul and Ulsan, South Korea, which ranked sixth, seventh and eighth, respectively.
Managing personal property taxes and compliance across multiple states can be an ongoing challenge for large corporations. Nestlé USA has a diverse portfolio of more than 40 manufacturing facilities, distribution centers and office buildings, plus vending equipment, that requires a robust system.
Most buyers of Ford Motor Co.’s 2013 Escape won’t know specifically where their new mini-SUV was made. But, in fact, they will have Louisville labor and a labor-friendly Kentucky business climate to thank for their ride. Ford invested $600 million in late 2010 in its Louisville Assembly Plant (LAP). The project is adding 1,800 jobs to the 1,100 already in place.
Is it just coincidence that companies are realizing pioneering renewable energy success along Great Lakes shorelines? Or that territories in two nations are seeing progressive energy policies blend with their industrial heritage to spawn growth in corporate investment?
The state of Utah not only offers the best in outdoor activities. We have also found that the people who live here are very well educated and innovative,” says Albert Modrovsky, vice president of strategic initiatives for L-3 Communication Systems Group. “They tend to thrive in an environment of teamwork and are more than willing to mentor other employees by sharing their work experiences and industry expertise.
Iowa Gov. Branstad has a four-point plan to boost his state’s business climate. Branstad touts Iowa’s strong Midwestern work ethic, a robust job training program, a favorable tax climate and its status as a right-to-work state as among its biggest draws, but he says the key to continued success is getting companies to notice the state.
When Silicon Valley Bank scoured the U.S. for an information-technology and operations location, it didn’t take long for the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company to find what it needed in Tempe, Ariz.
Colorado is ranked No. 3 in the U.S. in the Beacon Hill Institute’s latest State Competitiveness Report, based on 44 economic indicators in eight categories: government and fiscal policy, security, infrastructure, human resources, technology, business incubation, openness and environmental policy. Among those groupings, Colorado scored highest (No. 2) for infrastructure, which includes such indicators as mobile phones per 1,000, high-speed lines per 1,000 and air passengers per capita. Colorado scored No. 6 for technology and No. 8 for business incubation.
Warwick, R.I., might not be as well known as Providence, its neighbor 10 miles (16 km.) to the north, but it is starting to get attention for its new intermodal hub at the Warwick Station Development District near T.F. Green Airport.
BMW Manufacturing Company, South Carolina’s greatest economic success over the past two decades, continues to add chapters to its story with no end in sight. Since production began at the plant near Spartanburg in September 1994, it has been expanded four times, has produced more than 2 million vehicles and has provided more than US$5.8 billion in compensation to its employees.
Ohio’s vibrant metro areas are producing more than their share of downtown remakes and re-visions. Funded by a range of public-private entities, TIF arrangements and incentives, these projects’ campus-style atmospheres often have direct ties to university campuses.