The South Carolina Model
Creating jobs in rural America has always been a challenge for state economic development organizations.
September 2013
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The 2013 Infrastructure Report
Our annual Infrastructure Report unveils insights and plans from all three NAFTA territories, along with updates on some of the major projects now under way around the world.
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Passageways To Prosperity
DTZ in July released its Global Occupancy Costs Logistics 2013 report, not long after Prologis released its own close look at European logistics.
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Mutual Benefit Society
An astounding 1,850 projects across nearly all categories of plastics and chemicals have been recorded in Site Selection's New Plant Database over the two and a half years since Jan. 1, 2011.
Shedding Light On the Bottom Line
A funny thing happened on the way to the market for solar power. After meandering down decades of technical dead ends, following false leads of old ill-conceived state and federal policies, and surviving more recent politically exaggerated false forecasts of doom, the solar industry has shocked the nation. Solar power actually … works.
Generation Next
Below, in alphabetical order, we present the Top Utilities in Economic Development for 2013, selected by the following mix of objective and subjective criteria: Analysis of corporate end-user project activity in 2012 in that company's territory; website tools and data; innovative programs and incentives for business, including energy efficiency and renewable energy programs; and the utility's own job-creating infrastructure and facility investment trends.
Investment Profiles
A Less Taxing Environment
The Keystone State may have unlocked the key to sustainable economic recovery: reducing the overall tax bill and freeing business from the burden of over-regulation.
Surprise.
Early this summer a group of site consultants from across the country came to visit Northwest Ohio.
Europe’s New IT Hub
Two of Europe’s most significant IT capital investment projects just landed in the same region — the federal German state of Saxony-Anhalt.
Open to Alternatives
Business customers are used to partnering with Ameren and its economic development team to optimize operations.
Shovel Ready Sites: Short Cuts to Success
The Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs (OCRA) now administers the state’s Shovel Ready Program, working with communities around the state to ensure that its inventory of economic-development-ready sites is current and accurate.
‘Firing On All Cylinders’
Located in the western end of Ontario’s Golden Horseshoe, the City of Hamilton has emerged as one of the premier destinations in Canada and all of North America for new investment — all within the course of a decade.
Speed to Market
When the world's fastest-growing retailer needed a logistics solution in America's largest consumer market, it looked no further than San Bernardino County, Calif.
Cluster of Praise: Utah’s IT Sector An Industry Best
One first-place finish in a state business attractiveness ranking is noteworthy.
Future Space – Now Ready For Occupancy
Why establish a new Asian operation without local partners who can facilitate the process at every turn?
Malaysia Rising
Malaysia offers an ideal ecosystem for the medical devices industry at a watershed moment for Southeast Asia.
International
Sector Update: Oil & Gas Services
Malaysia’s Oil & Gas Machinery and Equipment sector gained new momentum in August with the opening of the expansion of Halliburton’s Malaysia Manufacturing and Technology Centre in Senai, in the southern state of Johor Bahru.
Can the UK Buck the EU Trend?: The United Kingdom and one of its key metros demonstrate economic resiliency.
The United Kingdom is enjoying a significant uptick in its core economic indicators that give it a first glimmer of hope for an economic turn-around.
North American Reports
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration in August released a report on the nation’s busiest Interstates that shows people drove more than 84.7 billion miles on California highways in 2011 — more than 900 times the distance from Earth to the Sun — making the Golden State’s highways the nation’s busiest.
Ready To Go?
When a US$1.8-trillion economy expands at a rate of over 5 percent, it should not cause much despondency, especially in these tough times when many developed economies struggle with 1- to 2-percent growth.
Home and Away
In earning Site Selection's Canadian Competitiveness Award this year, British Columbia's Ministry of Jobs, Tourism and Skills Training jumps up from a second-place finish last year to snare the prize.
Departments
Tenth Anniversary of The WORLD FORUM for Foreign Direct Investment 2013 Forum Fever
As August holidaymakers return from vacation, fully energised and ready for the next busy months, preparations for the Tenth Anniversary edition of The WORLD FORUM for Foreign Direct Investment 2013 are being cranked up another notch in the London and Shanghai offices of Red Hot Locations.
Area Spotlights
Visible Difference
“Push the infrastructure,” said Scott Condra, president of Jacoby Development, during a panel discussion at Brownfields 2013 in Atlanta this summer.
Still Ahead
Milken Institute’s fifth edition of its biannual State Technology and Science Index, issued this spring, revealed that competition at the top was getting more fierce. But that didn’t keep Massachusetts from ranking No. 1 for the fifth time in five tries over the past decade — this time by a wider margin.
‘One City’
Geographically speaking, you can’t get more Mid-Atlantic than the nation’s capital.
Renewal Row
Travel the highways, turnpikes and rivers of Pennsylvania and you’ll find your share of restoration stories.
On the Beaten Path
They don’t make much noise about it, because they don’t want to.
A New Wisconsin Revs Up
When Gov. Scott Walker stared down the powerful public employee unions in Wisconsin two years ago, the landmark budget reform legislation did more than place the Badger State on a path to fiscal recovery.
A City To Live In
The Texas mystique is real, but its economic dynamism could just as easily be said to come from the distinct characters of its many successful cities.
‘Go Midwest, Young Man’
If America is to fully recover from the Great Recession of 2008-2009, there's an excellent chance that leading the recovery will be a handful of states in the Upper Midwest and South Central regions of the country.
Sometimes A State Really Does Have the Best Work Force
Talk about a vote of confidence. GE Aviation is investing nearly $200 million in four North Carolina sites primarily because of the state's work force.
Full Stream Ahead
Could the decade of the 2010's turn out to be the new Golden Era for the Golden State? It may not be as far-fetched as it sounds.