Monday, July 23, 2007

North Carolina Ranks as Top Business Climate in 2006




Governor's Easley's thoughts on why North Carolina is attracting industry -- Quality of the work force is foremost on potential investors' minds.




"Providing a work force with the knowledge, talent and skill employers need to compete in the global economy brings high quality jobs to hard working North Carolina families," noted the governor at the announcement of other business-climate accolades on September 28th. "


"It is no surprise that since 2001, our state has successfully recruited more than 163,400 jobs and $26.2 billion in investment."

Among the highlights of the governor's September announcement were these:

• The Milken Institute of Santa Monica, Calif., listed three North Carolina public and two private universities among the top 100 in the world in ability to move biotech research into business start-up. The public universities and rank are North Carolina State University (20th), UNC-Chapel Hill (25th) and East Carolina University (81st); the private schools are Duke University (38th) and Wake Forest (59th).

The Silicon Valley Leadership Group, a public policy advocacy organization in San Jose, Calif., named the Raleigh-Durham area as the top technology hub in the nation in its annual ranking. The report noted the area's affordable housing and thriving job market as well as local student performance on eighth-grade math tests, comparatively low taxes and affordable utilities.


• Raleigh placed fifth in Forbes.com's list of Most Wired Cities; Charlotte ranked 10th. The two cities received high marks for the number of companies providing high-speed Internet access and the percentage of homes with high-speed Internet connections.

• Entrepreneur magazine listed the Charlotte-Gastonia and Raleigh-Durham metros as two of the best locations for entrepreneurs to start and grow a business, ranking them second and third respectively. Only the Phoenix-Mesa, Ariz., area ranked higher.

No comments: