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Text Size09/19/2003 Georgia Economic Developers Association
Prepared Remarks of Governor Sonny Perdue
Georgia Economic Developers Association
(Note: The Governor sometimes deviates from prepared remarks)
Thank you Glenn. And thank you members of GEDA for inviting me to visit with you today.
It is always a pleasure to be in Savannah but I'd enjoy meeting with this group anywhere because we have a shared mission of creating jobs and economic opportunity for Georgians.
And we have a shared philosophy of how to do that-by bringing high quality economic development to every part of Georgia.
You know, I can just about hold my own GEDA conference without leaving the office!
Just like the new ownership of the Atlanta Hawks and Thrashers-which I was pleased to help announce yesterday-I know the importance of recruiting good talent to build a winning team.
I'll confess my Administration has drafted pretty heavily from GEDA. To name a few, there's:
Glenn Cornell the "dean of economic development" at GDITT; my deputy chief of staff, Annie Hunt Burriss; and Dennis Chastain serving on the Rural Development Council.
And our most recent draft pick, Chris Clark who will head the new Division of Policy and Research at GDITT.
This is a winning team for Georgia. I guess all we need now is a starting forward!
Maybe Dave Garrett. I've appointed him back to the Lottery Board. He found Rebecca Paul and he'll find us a great new Lottery director.
I'm glad to see George Rogers and Jim Steed have made each other Lifetime Honorary members.
And congratulations to Dan McRae for winning the Rip Wiley Award .
And to Harold Reheis for receiving the Zell Miller Public Policy Award.
I think our line-up says more than any words I could add about the respect I have for GEDA and the importance I place on this organization and each of you as partners in creating jobs for Georgians.
And that is the bottom line for all of us, isn't it? We're on a mission to lead Georgia out of recession and help our state and our citizens compete in a 21st century economy.
Getting of the ground isn't what it used to be-the ground keeps shifting.
I think of it like this: Have any of you seen the new Western film " Open Range " starring Kevin Costner?
If you haven't, I promise it's nothing like "Waterworld." It's about an era in our nation's history when there were vast expanses of unclaimed land available to those who were bold enough to venture out and stake a claim.
Some might think that age of opportunity is over - pretty much all the land is spoken for today.
But the "open range" is still out there, waiting to be claimed. It just looks a little different today. It isn't defined by prairies and mountains and raging rivers.
Today's open range is defined by broadband connections, computer software, DNA and medical research.
It's about scientists creating patents, not cowhands punching cattle. It's as vast as cyberspace and as small as nanotechnology.
And, just like old frontier, today's open range is full of opportunity for those bold enough to stake a claim.
Georgia is staking our claim to the knowledge jobs of the 21st century. We're staking our claim to be champion competitor in the global marketplace.
So how do we lasso the opportunities on this open range?
I'll tell you about three ways:
We're going to dance with the ones that brought us-our existing employers.
We're going to build on our strengths.
And we're going to focus on the future.
We start by taking care of our existing employers.
At least 80% of the jobs created over the last 25 years came from existing companies.
We need to ask companies what we can do to help them stay and grow jobs.
We're moving BREP (Business Retention & Expansion Program) over to Industry & Trade from DCA.
We're planning a "Thank You Tour" to visit the headquarters of companies located elsewhere that have facilities in Georgia to thank them for their business and ask them to expand it.
Maybe one of our biggest "retention projects" is supporting our 13 military bases in their missions as the next BRAC round gets underway. Our bases add more than $25 billion to Georgia 's economy and impact half a million jobs.
Existing industries includes our tourism and hospitality industry.
It is already our 2 nd largest industry but we have vast potential for growth here as the leisure travel market expands.
We need your help to identify leisure tourism destinations in every part of the state.
The spotlight of the G8 Summit will help us showcase Georgia to the world, especially our beautiful coastal region.
Another strength is the Georgia Research Alliance - a public/private partnership of business, research universities and state government.
Let me give you an example of how university research can not only produce new industries, but help existing ones. Rick Duke should be familiar with this story.
At Gold Kist in Carrollton researchers from Georgia Tech are testing the real-time production benefit of using state-of-the-art computer imaging.
This project will provide cost savings to Gold Kist.
It will encourage our other poultry and food producers to take advantage of emerging information technologies.
And it will encourage our IT companies to explore new markets in this historically low-technology usage sector.
That's a three point conversion!
GEDA itself is another strength. And you represent our best product- Georgia communities.
You know best the strengths and needs of your communities. And you play a vital role in developing our statewide strategy.
For example, GEDA helped draft "brownfield legislation" I signed earlier this year to encourage the redevelopment of industrial sites. Thank you John Gornell for your leadership on this.
And I look forward to getting GEDA's Incentives Committee report to hear what you professionals believe you need from the state for your tool box.
Great state and local partnerships produce great results.
The Rome community joined with GDITT, DCA and the Department of Technical and Adult Education to bring in a world-class tire manufacturer, Pirelli Tires - a $141 million investment and 305 jobs created.
Guy Manino president of Pirelli, is here. Guy, thank you!
Another way we're building partnerships is through our "Centers of Innovation"
Centers of Innovation will marry applied research with key assets in midsized Georgia cities that will act as lightning rods for company interest.
My first Center of Innovation was launched right here in Savannah: the Maritime Logistics Institute.
GDITT, the Ports Authority, Georgia Tech and private sector partners like Home Depot are working together to create technologies that will solve homeland security problems at the Port.
Savannah will be the center of thought leadership in maritime shipping helping recruit technology companies and strengthen Savannah 's "cluster" of companies in the maritime industry.
Other Centers will focus on aerospace in Middle Georgia, transaction processing in Columbus and life sciences on the Augusta-Athens-Atlanta corridor.
Finally, there is our focus on the adapting to the future.
That means adapting to changing markets like the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), which will be the world's largest free trade zone.
Jose Ignacio Gonzalez is here to tell you about what that means for our state.
It means adapting our education system to meet high standards of achievement and prepare the students of today to become the knowledge workers of tomorrow.
You heard from Kathy Cox earlier in the week.
Education is vital to our future economic development and I'm proud to have appointed GEDA's own Al Hodge to the State Board of Education, the first professional economic developer to serve there.
And it means staking Georgia 's claim for leadership to the technologies that will shape that future.
As a trained veterinarian, I'm fascinated by the science of life. I've already mentioned our investment in developing a Center of Innovation in biotechnology.
I'm also intrigued by the potential of nanotechnology - the science of manipulating materials atom by atom
Nanotech can revolutionize everything from medicine to computers to transportation to communications.
Nanotechnology and gene splicing are a long way from what "economic development" meant when we were selling cheap land and cheap labor.
We're in a world of globalization, high technology, and constantly evolving markets.
The new open range of the 21 st Century will test us to our limits.
But I'm not worried. Because when I ride out to stake Georgia 's claim, I know I've got GEDA riding with me.
I look forward to working with each of you as we ride that range together, not into the sunset, but into a Georgia that leads the world in creating jobs and opportunity for all of our citizens.