Georgia has ‘turned it around’
Once again, Area Development Magazine has named Georgia as the country’s top state for doing business. Also in the top 10 were Texas, South Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Florida, Indiana, North Carolina, Louisiana, Ohio and Kentucky. Georgia also got the top spot in last year’s rankings.
Among the key reasons the magazine cited for that top ranking was Georgia’s skill at listening to the marketplace, its cooperative state government and our strong workforce development programs.
Said the magazine, “It is not surprising to see Georgia rank as the Top State for Doing Business. Georgia places strong in overall cost of doing business and has a diverse workforce. Millennials are now driving the workforce equation, and their decision to call Southern States home has had a positive impact on the corporate and tech sector growth throughout the region. The Georgia difference has been that its longstanding corporate citizens have become team players in economic development. …
“In addition to economic development efforts, Georgia offers a highly educated labor market, affordable housing and office space, and access to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the world’s busiest airport. The city of Atlanta sits at the intersection of three major interstate highways, with robust railroad access and the fourth-largest shipping container port just a few hours away in Savannah. This mobility makes the state attractive for all asset types.
“However, Georgia’s competitors are not sitting back and watching Georgia grow without a fight. Georgia’s playbook has been adopted by all of the states ranked in the top 10. Specifically, these states are listening to the marketplace and providing what is most important for business — a cooperative state government and strong workforce development for an evolving workforce. They realize that when companies make location decisions, time is money and the quicker you can get them to the ribbon-cutting, the better, because this translates to profit. This is why the South continues to outpace the rest of the country when it comes to a favorable business environment.”
How interesting that all but two of the magazine’s top 10 states for development (Indiana and Ohio) help anchor a region that for most of this country’s history, until just the past few decades, in fact, was the most economically deprived and backward in the nation.
Georgia, and most of the rest of our region, has “turned it around” and is now pacing the field. And our leaders at all levels need to enhance and enlarge upon the policies that have gotten us to where we are.
Mike Lester, Washington Post Writers Group