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Governor Riley Announces Alabama Named “State of the Year”
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MONTGOMERY-- Governor Bob Riley visited expanding businesses in the aviation, life sciences and automotive fields in three cities on Wednesday to announce Alabama has been named “State of the Year” by a trade magazine for its economic development performance in 2007.
This is the fifth time in the last six years Alabama has been ranked the South’s top economic development state by Southern Business and Development magazine.
“Once again, Alabama leads the South in economic development and the South leads the nation,” said Governor Riley. “Our ranking as number one is a monumental accomplishment. It’s recognition that Alabama is the place where there are more jobs, more prosperity and more opportunity.”
The magazine, which covers economic development activity in 17 states, uses a point system based on announcements of 200 jobs or more and/or capital investments of $30 million or more to rank the states.
Alabama has been named “State of the Year” for 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 and now 2007.
Last year, Alabama saw 473 new and expanding industry announcements. Those projects resulted in more than 24,000 announced new jobs.
To celebrate the news, Governor Riley and Alabama Development Office Director Neal Wade visited three companies that announced expansions and new jobs last year: Westwind Technologies in Huntsville, Brookwood Pharmaceuticals in Birmingham and Hyundai outside Montgomery.
Each of the three represents industry sectors the state has worked to increase its presence - aviation, life sciences and automotive manufacturing.
Westwind Technologies in Huntsville specializes in engineering, aviation integration, and flight simulator production. The company is expanding its services with plans for additional hangar space at Huntsville International Airport to meet growing demand. The company employs 300.
Governor Riley remarked that Alabama is seeing tremendous growth in the aerospace industry. More than 300 aerospace companies call the state home.
Brookwood Pharmaceuticals in Birmingham develops drug-delivery technologies, including injectable solid implants and biodegradable polymers. It is expanding with a new facility that increases the company’s capacity for research and development and clinical manufacturing. It employs about 80 but with expansion is expected to employ about 300 over the next five years.
Alabama has a flourishing biotechnology industry, Governor Riley said, with more than 90 companies in bio-related industries located in the state. These companies employ 24,000 Alabamians, and Genome Technology magazine earlier this year named Alabama one of nine “emerging biotech regions” in the world.
Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama in Hope Hull is a $1.4 billion automotive manufacturing plant that employs 3,300 team members. In 2007, the company announced it would build a second engine plant to supply both Hyundai and the new Kia plant being built in Georgia. That expansion is expected to create more than 500 new jobs at full operation.
Alabama is home to three auto assembly plants that employ more than 11,000. The automotive manufacturing industry in the state grew to 48,457 direct automotive jobs in 2007, up from 44,834 jobs in 2005, according to the Alabama Automotive Manufacturers Association. Since 2001, Alabama’s auto industry has added more than 21,000 jobs, the association reported earlier this year.
“Whenever we recruit a new industry to our state, it gets a lot of headlines and attention, and it should. But when an existing company succeeds to the point that it needs to grow and add more jobs - and it wants to put those jobs in Alabama - that’s something we truly need to celebrate,” said Governor Riley.
The Governor said one reason why he wanted to visit these three companies is to highlight the state’s success in diversifying its economy.
“We’ve worked to diversify our economy. We never want to be reliant on any one industry. You can look at other states across the nation that relied too much on one industry and see how that can invite disaster,” Governor Riley said. “Our economic diversity is enabling Alabama to weather this national downturn better than most states.”
At each of the three stops on Wednesday, the Governor also thanked Wade and local economic developers for Alabama’s strong economic performance.
“We’ve built strong partnerships that have worked to bring new jobs to Alabama. I thank all of you because it wouldn’t be possible without your leadership and our outstanding workforce,” Governor Riley said.
Several Alabama cities were also recognized by the magazine.
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Birmingham was ranked fifth in the major markets category (populations between 750,000-2,999,999)
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Mobile ranked first, Huntsville second and Montgomery fourth in the medium markets category (populations between 250,000-749,999).
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The Shoals area ranked fourth in the small markets category (populations under 250,000).
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